Fatigue behaviour of recycled tyre rubber-filled concrete and its implications in the design of rigid pavements

This paper presents the results of fatigue bending tests on prismatic samples of recycled tyre rubber-filled concrete (RRFC) with different volumetric fractions (VF) of rubber (0%, 3.5% and 5%) after a long term exposition to natural weathering in Madrid (Spain) (one year ageing). From these experimental results, an analytical model based on classical Westergaard well known equations has been developed to calculate the minimum thickness of RRFC for rigid pavements subjected to high density traffic, in order to obtain a durability of these rigid pavements of 106 cycles of 13 tons (127 kN) axle load. In this investigation any value of the modulus of subgrade reaction for rigid pavement design have been considered.