Understanding Mechanisms Leading to Asphalt Binder Fatigue

Download or read book Understanding Mechanisms Leading to Asphalt Binder Fatigue written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fatigue cracking is one of the primary modes of failure in asphalt pavements. Cracking typically occurs within the asphalt binder phase of asphalt mixtures. Thus, asphalt binder fatigue resistance is critical in determining overall pavement fatigue performance. One procedure commonly used to characterize asphalt binder fatigue resistance is the time sweep test, which consists of repeated torsional loading of a cylindrical specimen in the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR). Generally, apparent changes in material properties with respect to number of cycles of loading are used to define fatigue failure of the asphalt binder. Results of this test have been shown to correlate well with asphalt mixture fatigue performance. However, the mechanisms responsible for changes in material properties during fatigue testing in the DSR were previously not well understood. Results in this study demonstrate that fracture can account for changes in loading resistance of asphalt binders during time sweep testing. Under cyclic torsional loading of cylindrical specimens, macro fracture is shown to manifest in the form of edge fracture. Edge fracture is a circumferential crack starting at the periphery of a cylindrical sample that propagates inward as loading is applied, reducing the effective sample size. Digital visualization of the fractured specimens allowed for determination of the fractured and intact sample area. Predictions of fracture propagation based on measurements of loading resistance and fracture mechanics concepts agreed favorably with actual measurements based on visualization. Furthermore, the fracture morphology and progression of crack growth of asphalt binders matched those observed for other materials under similar loading conditions.Based on these results, fatigue damage characterization of asphalt binders can be improved by incorporating fracture mechanics into an analysis framework for DSR fatigue test results. An analysis framework based on fracture principles is presented. The proposed model allows predicting fatigue life at any loading amplitude using the results of a single fatigue test. Additionally, it is demonstrated that time-temperature superposition is applicable to fatigue crack propagation of asphalt binders, allowing for efficient prediction of fatigue performance at multiple temperatures. The model is validated using a comparison between asphalt mixture and binder fatigue test results.