Guide to Roller-Compacted Concrete Pavements

Description

Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) is an economical, fast construction candidate for many pavement applications. Because of its relatively coarse surface, RCC has tradition-ally been used for pavements carrying heavy loads in low-speed areas. In recent years, however, its use in commercial areas and for local streets and highways is increasing.

This guide is largely based on Harrington et al. (2010). The review panel for the Harrington report was made up largely of ACI Committee 327 members. With the coopera-tion of the Portland Cement Association, the report was used as the basis for this guide. Extensive changes were made during the committee review, including incorporating mate-rial from ACI 325.10R. Additional references and examples have been added.

Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) gets its name from the heavy vibratory steel drum and rubber-tired rollers used to compact it into its final form. Roller-compacted concrete has similar strength properties and consists of the same basic ingre-dients as conventional concrete—well-graded aggregates, cementitious materials, and water—but has different mixture proportions.

The biggest difference between RCC and conven-tional concrete mixtures is that RCC has a higher percentage of fine aggregates that allow for tight packing and compaction.Fresh RCC is stiffer than typical zero-slump conventional concrete, with a consistency that is stiff enough to remain stable under vibratory rollers, yet wet enough to permit adequate mixing and distribution of paste without segregation.