Browsing by Subject "Diamond grinding"

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    Laboratory investigation of diamond grinding and grooving textures on concrete pavement surfaces
    (2016-05) Cheruku, Sumanth Reddy; Fowler, David W.; Bhasin, Amit
    Polishing of surface texture warrants a rehabilitative treatment that addresses just the surface for safe riding experience. The rate of polishing was found to be proportional to the hardness of the aggregates used in the concrete mixture. The lack of hard aggregates is prompting a surface texture rehabilitation every 2 to 3 years which is neither economical nor sustainable. In this context, the texture generated during diamond grinding operation is believed to be enough to provide the required skid resistance. Diamond grinding is a part of a Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation (CPR) technique that is used primarily to plane the pavement surface. The practice results in a strong macrotexture that is adequate to provide an improvement in the skid resistance of the pavement. This study initiates the process of investigation of the parameters and the effectiveness of diamond grinding in a laboratory setting. It was observed that the configuration of diamond grinding adopted is dependent on the type of aggregate as the exposed coarse aggregate polishing is responsible for the loss of the generated macrotexture. A protocol is developed in which the pavements that are experiencing low skid resistance are selected and subjected to a series of different textures. An optimal configuration is suggested based on the polishing performance of each section with different textures. This laboratory based protocol is quick and can provide the interested agency with an optimal configuration within a short period of time and with reliable accuracy. Most importantly, this practice saves the cost of implementation of different configurations on the pavement section. This study explains the developed protocol and applies it to four sections that have polished surfaces in the Dallas and Fort Worth districts, in the state of Texas. A part of this study also explores the potential of re-grinding a section after the textured surface is polished. An equal performance was observed after re-grinding suggesting that a pavement can be ground multiple times before the need (and budget) for an overlay arises.