PPC 1121 Polyester Polymer Concrete Closure Pour Material

923 Teal Drive Benicia, California 94510 866 434 1772 Contact@KwikBondPolymers.com

PPC 1121 Polyester Polymer Concrete Closure Pour Material Following 35 years of use as the bridge preservation industry’s top performing bridge deck overlay, Kwik Bond Polymers, LLC has taken their proven technology in PPC 1121 Polyester Polymer Concrete and further developed the system for use as a steel reinforced cast-in-place (CIP) material for select structural applications.

Known for its rapid 2-hour traffic return at placement temperatures down to 0°F, KBP PPC 1121 Closure Pour Material is an excellent choice for ABC projects and other short duration closures where preservation, structural performance, low cost and ease of placement are priorities.

PPC 1121’s exceptional adhesion to both steel and concrete, in addition to favorable time and temperature dependent properties offer many advantages over traditional and high performance cementitious concretes.

KBP PPC 1121 Closure Pour Material offers a reasonable amount of ductility without first having to exhibit failure within the primary material matrix. Steel fiber reinforced high strength concrete has gained popularity as a closure pour material but relies on cracking within the cementitious matrix to achieve ductility from steel fibers. Cracking creates pathways for moisture and chlorides into the material matrix which significantly limits the potential service life of the element.

Cementitious closure pour materials typically must achieve extremely high compressive strength in order to reduce rebar development length and allow for a smaller closure pour. KBP PPC 1121 Closure Pour Material can achieve very short effective development length while achieving a more reasonable compressive strength. A similar compressive strength of the bridge deck and closure pour material

helps avoid failure at or near the bond interface between the two materials. These failures occur due to a stress concentration resulting from the lack of strength uniformity of the deck and the closure pour. Instead of unnecessarily maximizing individual mechanical properties, KBP PPC 1121 Closure Pour Material features a balance of strength (both tensile and compressive) and modulus of elasticity to offer a more effective solution for bridge deck closures than ever seen before. KBP PPC 1121 Closure Pour Material is working with the bridge deck, instead of against it.

PPC 1121 Polyester Polymer Concrete Closure Pour Material Property Table Property

Average Result

Density (ASTM C138)

135 lb/ft3

Initial Compressive Strength (ASTM C579)

6.0 ksi @ 4 hrs

Compressive Strength (ASTM C39)

7.0 ksi @ 28 days

Splitting Tensile Strength (ASTM C496)

10.9 ksi

Length Change (ASTM C490)

294 microstrain @ 24 hrs 324 microstrain @ 2 weeks

Shrinkage (ASTM C157)

50 microstrain @ 10 days after 4-hr initial set

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion

8.4 x 10-6 in/in/°F

Modulus of Elasticity (ASTM C469)

1,800 ksi @ 7 days

Chloride Ion Permeability (ASTM C1202)

0 coulombs @ 28 days

Abrasion (CT 550)

0.1 grams lost

Field Installation Examples Similar KBP PPC 1121 technology has been utilized on hundreds of full-depth joints and many thousands of partial to full-depth patches, demonstrating the systems fitness for use in select structural applications. Following that history, the system was further developed specifically for use as deck closure pour material with emphasis on failure free longevity and Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) goals. Some notable applications of field installations of steel reinforced PPC 11121 Closure Pour Material for ABC closure pours are further outlined below: Route 18 over Route 1 – NJDOT PPC 1121 Closure Pour Material was used as a CIP closure pour material for NJDOT project Route 18 over Route 1 (ADT = 118,700) in the Winter of 2015. The project replaced the deck and superstructure with prefabricated superstructure units (PSU’s) consisting of precast concrete decking on steel girders. PSU’s ranged from 55’ to 90’ long and 8’ to 13’ wide. All CIP connections were made using PPC 1121 including fulldepth end dams, longitudinal closure pours and shear pockets. The PSU’s and CIP closure pours with PPC 1121 were installed in two 55-hour closure windows.

Temperatures during installation ranged from 40-50°F, and PPC 1121 closure pours were cured to a traffic ready state in less than 2 hours after placement.

Bridge 0910 on Henry Road – Mercer County, PA In November of 2019 an ABC deck and superstructure replacement was completed for the Mercer County, PA Bridge 0910 on Henry Road project. A total of 68 cubic feet of PPC 1121 was installed as a CIP closure pour material. With temperatures in the mid 30’s F all eight closure pours were mixed, installed and cured to a traffic ready state in just under four hours total. The longitudinal closure pours not only tied deck panels together but also secured the deck system to the press-brake-formed steel tub girder superstructure through vertical sheer studs.

Laboratory Analysis To measure the bond behavior of reinforcing bars embedded in PPC, a series of tests at room and elevated temperatures were conducted using the methods reported in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study for Bond Behavior of Reinforcing Steel in Ultra-High Performance Concrete, FHWA-HRT-14-090. Based on the FHWA test results, a select subset of test parameters were chosen for evaluation in this program. The results are listed below: Minimum Levels to Achieve Bar Yield Strength or 75 ksi at Bond Failure Property

PPC at Room Temp (70°F)

PPC at Elevated Temp (110°F)

Bar type

Uncoated or Epoxy Coated

Uncoated or Epoxy Coated

Bar size

No. 6

No. 6

Embedment Length of Reinforcing Steel (ld)

>6 * db

>10 *db

Concrete Side Cover (Cso)

>3 * db

>3 * db

Lap Splice Length

75% of ld

75% of ld

Upon completion of laboratory pull-out testing, Finite Element Method (FEM) Analysis modeling was performed on a sample Northeast Extreme Tee (NEXT) beam bridge deck to compare UHPC vs PPC 1121 as a longitudinal closure pour material using identical reinforcing details and service loading conditions for each material analysis. FEM featured a 2-phase comparason including 1) Construction sequence and example AASHTO Axle Loads and 2) Thermal-stress analysis with viscoelastic creep from 0-110° F. Results indicated that PPC 1121 is a suitable alternative to UHPC as a closure pour material in the NEXT beam application tested. Performance under thermal stress found that the PPC 1121 creep behavior is excellent for accommodating differential thermal strains, settlement and other materials’s shrinkage and creep, good for providing vibration damping and acceptable for live loads and short term extreme event loads.