Macro-texture and acoustic performance characterization of concrete pavements with various types of surface textures

Abstract

With the ever-increasing cost and ever-decreasing resource of petroleum, concrete pavements are becoming a more competitive paving alternative compared to asphalt pavements and have gained increasing interest of highway agencies. Different surface texturing methods may lead to different surface characteristics of the concrete pavements, such as skid resistance, drainage and road-Tire noise. The main objective of this study is to assess the surface characteristics of concrete pavements with four common types of surface textures, namely wire brushing, exposed aggregate, transverse tining, and artificial turf dragging. To achieve this objective, full-scale concrete panels (3.65mx4mx0.25m), with the four different textures were first constructed following the standard construction procedure adopted in Hong Kong. 250mm-diameter cores were then extracted from the hardened concrete panels for various surface characteristic tests, including macro-Texture profile tests and mirco-Texture profile tests with associated road-Tyre noise prediction. To assess the durability of the surface characteristics of each type of surface texture, each of the aforementioned tests was repeated six times after the test samples were subjected to 0, 16, 33, 100, 200, and 300mins of real tire polishing applied by the advanced Aachen Polishing Machine (APM). The test results indicated that among the four types of surface textures evaluated in this study, exposed aggregate provides the best overall performance in terms of macro-Texture depth and tyre-road noise, while the performances of the others are relatively similar. Recommendations on further improving the surface characteristics of each type of surface texture were also provided.