This paper describes the development of a laboratory test procedure to assess the weathering effects of a wet tropical climate on wear resistance of concrete pavements. An accelerated weathering model was fabricated to provide cyclic wetting and drying treatment in a laboratory simulation of the weathering effects of Singapore's climate. The effects of weathering on wear resistance were evaluated by means of a rotating drum test conducted on plain cement mortar specimens with and without weathering treatment. The study showed that cyclic wetting and drying weathering significantly reduced the wear resistance of cement mortar test specimens. Although no correlation relationship is available at this stage between test data of the proposed procedure and field performance of in-service pavements, results obtained in this study suggest that the test procedure could find useful application in evaluating the relative surface wear resistance and durability of various concrete pavement materials.
Samenvatting