01658413

Component

A major challenge experienced by many highway agencies is the underperformance of asphalt concrete (AC) mixtures in terms of cracking. The adaption of a performance-related crack test seems to be an indispensable step to control the cracking potential of AC mixtures and minimize the premature cracking failure of flexible pavements. One such popular test, the overlay tester (OT), measures the cracking response of AC specimens due to the repeated application of tensile load cycles. This paper presents a laboratory evaluation and field verification of the cracking performance of seventeen AC mixtures that were placed on flexible pavements. The cracking performance of these mixtures was monitored semi-annually for over five years. The performance of these AC mixtures was then correlated to two new OT indices (i.e., critical fracture energy and crack progression rate). Cores were extracted from the pavement sections to assess their behaviors under the OT tests several years after placement. The OT indices obtained from testing the laboratory-prepared specimens and field cores were compared and related to the observed field cracking performance as a means of validation. Based on the good correlation between the new OT indices and the observed field performance, the new OT cracking methodology may be appropriate for routine design-acceptance-verification process for AC mixtures.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFK50 Standing Committee on Structural Requirements of Asphalt Mixtures.

18-01444

English

5p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References

Asphalt concrete; Asphalt concrete pavements; Core samples; Correlation analysis; Cracking of asphalt concrete pavements; Field tests; Flexible pavements; Laboratory tests

Overlay tester

Highways; Materials; Pavements

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-01444

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 10:22AM