![Sample our Engineering & Technology journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5933/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Engineering-Tech.jpg"})
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of density on the fatigue cracking and rutting performance of hot mix asphalt mixtures. Two plant produced Superpave mixtures, 9.5 and 12.5 mm, were utilised to fabricate specimens to target density levels of 88, 91, 94 and 97% of the theoretical maximum specific gravity. The specimens were used to evaluate the mixture stiffness in the asphalt mixture performance test device, fatigue cracking characteristics utilising the beam fatigue test and the overlay test-based fatigue cracking analysis and rutting potential using the asphalt pavement analyser and the flow number test. Additionally, the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG) distress prediction equations were used to predict the mixture performance as function of density. Overall, the testing analysis and MEPDG predictions indicated that higher density specimens yielded improved fatigue and rutting performance.
Keywords:
Acknowledgements
The research presented here was funded through the New England Transportation Consortium (NETC). NETC is a cooperative effort of the six New England state transportation agencies, which was created to pool resources for the transportation research. The authors would like to thank Palmer Paving Corporation of Palmer Massachusetts for supplying the plant produced mixtures for this study. Finally, the authors would also like to acknowledge the efforts of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth graduate student Jason Lema and research assistant Mark Brum for their assistance with laboratory testing for this study.