详情

Towards Sustainable Pavements: Engineered Agricultural Waste for Alleviation of Thermal Cracking, Phase 1

项目名称：	Towards Sustainable Pavements: Engineered Agricultural Waste for Alleviation of Thermal Cracking, Phase 1
摘要：	Cold winter temperatures that are typical for the Kansas' continental climate are likely to produce detrimental shrinkage cracking of pavements. Thermally induced contraction of pavements is restrained either by the friction of the sub-grade and/or by the reinforcing steel. The pavement cracks if the restraint produces sufficiently large tensile stresses. The cracks are usually parallel to each other and they appear at a regular spacing, thus exhibiting a particular length scale. They form across the entire width of pavements, thus negatively affecting the ride quality. In addition, cracks also facilitate infiltration of water into sub-grade soils, which causes a rapid deterioration of the pavement structure. Frequent and costly repairs of cracked pavements necessitate the engineering solution, which will increase the resilience of pavements while bringing along a number of sustainability benefits. Kansas is strategically located in the midst of Great Plains, one of the largest wheat growing regions in the world. The abundant wheat straw has traditionally been burned off the fields or tilled back into the soil in preparation for the next planting season. These disposal methods contribute to air pollution and global warming. Ron Madl, director of the Kansas State University Wheat Research Center described the benefits of the straw removal as follows: "Straw removal increases soil temperature in spring, improves soil drying rate, is helpful to low-till or no-till farming, decreases combine operating costs and diminishes the risk of disease and insect transfer into the next season". The use of renewable materials such as wheat straw to reinforce pavements is likely to bring a number of multiple sustainability benefits including: 1) economic, 2) environmental, and 3) social benefits. Economic benefits are due to a decreased maintenance costs. Environmental benefits are due to the use of benign renewable materials, decreased pollution and decreased global warming that are otherwise caused by frequent repairs of thermal cracks and non-sustainable agricultural practices. Social benefits are in that the proposed beneficial use of wheat straw provides additional income to farmers that will be pumped back into the economy. In addition, significantly decreased maintenance operations lessen traffic disruptions, thus providing better connectivity to rural population. Overall, the engineering use of agricultural waste is likely to give a boost to the rural economy. To this end, and in the spirit of the theme of the KS-UTC: "Sustainability and Safety of Rural Transportation Systems and Infrastructure", we propose to conduct an investigation about he feasibility of use of wheat straw for alleviation of thermal cracking of pavements.
状态：	Active
资金：	15000.00
资助组织：	Kansas State University Transportation Center
项目负责人：	Stokes, Robert W
执行机构：	Kansas State University Transportation Center
开始时间：	20110101
实际结束时间：	20120630
主题领域：	Highways；Maintenance and Preservation；Pavements；I15: Environment