Primary causes of cracking of asphalt pavement in North Carolina: field study

Abstract

Presently, North Carolina is experiencing higher than anticipated rates of fatigue cracking. Field materials and pavement conditions are investigated to find the primary causes of cracking in North Carolina. This study finds that pavements with high asphalt content tend to be in good condition based on the top-down cracking (TDC) observed in the top layer, and pavements with low air void contents tend also to be in good condition. In addition, fine-graded mixes tend to yield a better pavement condition than coarse-graded mixes. The structure-related comprehensive analysis suggests that debonding is one of the major causes of a poor pavement condition. Road widening is another cause of cracking that can develop into fatigue cracking. Regions in which bottom-up cracking is observed tend to have larger bending strains at the bottom of the asphalt layer than regions where TDC is observed.

Keywords::

• asphalt
• pavement
• debonding
• road widening
• fatigue cracking
• bottom-up cracking
• top-down cracking

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the North Carolina Department of Transportation under project NCDOT HWY-2010-01.