Performance damage characteristics of asphalt mixture suffered from the sulphate–water–temperature–load coupling action

ABSTRACT

In order to evaluate the macro-mechanical performance of asphalt mixture suffered from the sulphate–water–temperature–load coupling action, the self-designed asphalt mixture dynamic water–salt attack apparatus was adopted for the accelerated simulation of real service conditions in sulphate enrichment environment. Splitting test at room temperature and low temperature was conducted for assessing the performance of asphalt mixture suffered from still water immersion and multi-factor coupling action. Then the performance damage characteristics of asphalt mixture under different conditions were explored. The multi-linear regression analysis and t-test were applied to determine the significance of factors on the performance of asphalt mixture. The performance deterioration mechanism of asphalt mixture exposed to dynamic water and sulphate attack was preliminarily analysed. The results show that the sulphate–water–temperature–load coupling action plays an important role in the macro-mechanical performance deterioration of asphalt mixture and dynamic water further accelerates the deterioration process of sulphate attack to asphalt mixture. The dynamic water scouring times, temperature and sulphate solution concentration have a significant impact on the performance of asphalt mixture. The decreasing adhesion between asphalt and aggregate, along with exterior/interior sulphate crystallisation erosion contributes the important inducement for the performance deterioration of asphalt mixture.

KEYWORDS:

• Asphalt mixture
• dynamic water
• sulphate attack
• sulphate–water–temperature–load coupling action
• splitting strength
• deterioration mechanism

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51608046), the program of Traffic Innovation Management Consulting Research Project of Yunnan province (No.2019304), the Key R&D Plan of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology (20192BBG70064) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD (No.300102319202, 300102319102 and 300102310501). R. Xiong also appreciates the fund from the program of China Scholarship Council (No. 201906565014).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Scholarship Council: [Grant Number 201906565014]; National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 51608046]; the program of Traffic Innovation Management Consulting Research Project of Yunnan province: [Grant Number 2019304]; the Science and Technology Project of Henan Department of Transportation: [Grant Number 2020J-2-3]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD: [Grant Numbers 300102319202, 300102319102 and 300102310501].