Distress Effective Temperature For Asphalt Pavement Performance Evaluation

Abstract

As the asphalt pavement mix is placed at a given project location, it will be simultaneously subjected to the local environmental conditions and traffic loading. Due to the viscoselastic nature of the asphalt pavement mix, its behavior is highly dependent on both temperature and rate of loading. The loading rate of the asphalt pavement mix depends on the speed of the traffic running on the road. The loading rate varies from short under freeway traffic to long under urban traffic. Low temperature coupled with a short loading rate is the best condition for an asphalt pavement mixture while high temperature coupled with a long loading rate represents the worst condition. This research purpose is to evaluate the asphalt pavement mix stiffness under fatigue and permanent deformation effective temperature at fast and slow loading rates using dynamic modulus analysis. With this approach, it is more convenient to describe the viscous component (loss modulus) as a function of the elastic component (storage modulus). There are four categories of mixes. Which are FLV, FHV, CLV and CHV. Among all, FHV shows stability in terms of stiffness at all levels of condition. It is valuable to give general guidance on the magnitude of the dynamic modulus range at the distress effective temperature of road traffic under tropical environments especially for pavement performance evaluation