Fatigue Evaluation of Porous Asphalt Composites with Carbon Fiber Reinforcement Polymer Grids

Abstract

Porous asphalt (PA) has been widely used in many countries because of its positive benefits, such as efficient water drainage, improved safety in wet weather conditions, and noise reduction. However, the attractive features of PA do not last long because of clogging, stripping, and accelerated aging. Application of fiber reinforcement materials can be a possible solution to the structural weakness in PA pavements. Fatigue of fiber-reinforced PA composite systems was investigated with a model mobile load simulator (MMLS). Carbon fiber reinforcement polymer (FRP) grids were used to strengthen the fatigue resistance of PA. FRP grids were placed between two asphalt layers as a reinforcement interlayer. The dynamic fatigue traffic loadings were applied on the top surface of reinforced specimens to investigate the performance improvement by reinforcement materials. These fatigue tests were conducted under four different conditions: absence and presence of reinforcement at dry conditions and wet conditions. The stiffness difference between unaged and aged specimens was 25% at minimum and 55% at maximum. The surface deflection of PA was successfully reduced by 23% at dry and by 48% at wet conditions by using interlaid carbon FRP grids. In addition, the reinforcement layer could increase the fatigue life by 23% at dry and by 27% at wet conditions based on MMLS test results.