Study on Quality Control Method for Road Pavement Concrete Using Splitting Strength

The quality control of pavement concrete is carried out with bending strength in Japan. However, the bending strength test requires very heavy specimens of 15xl5x53cm and it is not easy to cariy out loading tests. This paper shows the results of several experiments on the feasibility of using the splitting tensile strength test as the quality control method. We surveyed the relationship between bending and splitting tensile strength in ten different laboratories, and also studied the size-effect of specimens, effect of maximum coarse aggregate size, influence of cement type, mix proportion, age, etc. On-site tests at practical work sites were also carried out. From these experiments, we concluded that the splitting test can be used as the quality control test with sufficient accuracy and safety. We also proposed a practical procedure for determining splitting tensile strength of pavement concrete.