01090399

Component

A full-scale accelerated flexible pavement experiment was conducted at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) Pavement Test Track from 2003 – 2005. The experiment included embedded instrumentation in eight test sections, some of which developed bottom-up fatigue cracking. The cracking first developed as a series of short transverse cracks that later extended to the edge of the wheelpath before interconnecting into the familiar alligator pattern. Theoretical and measured pavement response investigations were conducted to develop a better understanding of the crack development. It was found that strains in the longitudinal direction were consistently higher and characteristically different than those in the transverse direction. The shape of computed strain spatial distributions theoretically resembled those obtained from strain gauges which gave confidence to both data sets. In light of these findings, it was recommended that the strain reversal in the longitudinal direction be considered in future fatigue transfer function calibration. Treating axles individually, rather than part of an axle group, should also be considered in future calibration studies.

01084478

08-0256

English

17p

2008

Transportation Research Board 87th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (14) ; References (19)

Asphalt pavements; Cracking; Flexible pavements; Instrumentation; Pavement design; Pavement performance; Strain (Mechanics); Test tracks

Design; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I23: Properties of Road Surfaces

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2008 Paper #08-0256

TRIS, TRB

Jan 29 2008 2:36PM