01620238

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2631-10

Top-down cracking (TDC) is recognized as one of the major distress modes in asphalt pavements. This study aimed to determine the fracture parameter J-integral of TDC, which is a critical input to predict the crack growth rate and fatigue life of pavements for this type of distress. Previous research studies demonstrated that TDC is affected by various factors, including the complex state of high tensile or shear stresses induced by the loading at the edge of or within the tire and material properties such as the modulus gradient in the asphalt layer, moduli of the base and subgrade layers, and pavement structures. In this study, the finite element model (FEM) was adopted to simulate the propagation of TDC by considering combinations of these essential factors and to calculate the J-integral for 194,400 cases. It was shown that the modulus gradient plays an important role in determining the J-integral, and the J-integral is not uniformly distributed within the pavement depth. On the basis of the database generated from the FEM, six backpropagation artificial neural network (ANN) models—including one input layer, two hidden layers, and one output layer—were developed by using the same input variables and output variable as those for the FEM. The R2 value for each ANN model was greater than .99, which indicates the goodness of fit. After the parameters of each ANN model have been determined, the J-integral can be predicted for any combination of the design parameters without reconstruction of the FEM.

01637861

17-05318

English

pp 83–95

2017

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309441506

Digital/other

Figures (7) ; References (24) ; Tables (2)

Asphalt concrete pavements; Base course (Pavements); Cracking; Neural networks; Subgrade (Pavements)

Highways; Materials; Pavements

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 19 2016 1:12PM

• Characterization of Permanent Deformation of Asphalt Mixtures with Minimum Strain Rate, LVECD Program, and Triaxial Stress Sweep Test
• Comparing the Performance of Fiberglass Grid with Composite Interlayer Systems in Asphalt Concrete
• Effect of Pore Water Pressure on Response of Asphalt Concrete
• Evaluation of Small Specimen Geometries for Asphalt Mixture Performance Testing and Pavement Performance Prediction
• Laboratory Evaluation of a Plant-Produced High Polymer–Content Asphalt Mixture
• New and Simpler Cracking Test Method for Asphalt Mix Designs
• Overlay Tester Results from Dense-Graded Asphalt Concrete Mixes: Accuracy in Characterizing Crack Susceptibility
• Practical Method to Determine Strain Level for Cyclic Direct Tension Fatigue Testing in the Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester
• Sensitivity of the Illinois Flexibility Index Test to Mixture Design Factors
• Short-Term Performance and Evolution of Material Properties of Warm- and Hot-Mix Asphalt Pavements: Case Studies
• The Logit Model and the Need to Reproduce the Stiffness Degradation Curve of Asphalt Specimens During Fatigue Testing
• Use of Digital Image Correlation for the Evaluation of Flexural Fatigue Behavior of Asphalt Beams with Geosynthetic Interlayers
• Use of Fine Aggregate Matrix Experimental Data in Improving Reliability of Fatigue Life Prediction of Asphalt Concrete: Sensitivity of This Approach to Variation in Input Parameters
• Use of Nonlinear Acoustic Measurements for Estimation of Fracture Performance of Aged Asphalt Mixtures
• Viscoelasticplastic–Fracture Modeling of Asphalt Mixtures Under Monotonic and Repeated Loads