Pavement Properties and Predictive Durability Analysis of Asphalt Mixtures

Abstract

The actual lifetimes of many highways are lower than that expected based on the initial pavement design, which brings increasingly prohibitive costs of pavement maintenance and repair. Although many works have been done, the real service lifetimes are still disappointing, and the researchers are also trying their best to increase the projects’ life span. In this study, to comprehensively predict the durability and lifetime of newly designed asphalt mixture structures, an asphalt pavement project consisting of three hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures were evaluated. The mixtures were constructed in the pavement project of the Weiwu expressway in Gansu Province. Pavement properties of the asphalt mixtures, rutting and temperature fatigue factors of the dynamic modulus are discussed. The fatigue resistance is supposed to improve on increasing the vehicles’ speed below the freezing point, which may be more suitable for applications in expressways. Meanwhile, the lifetime is measured according to the number of fatigue axle loads calculated, which were corrected between the specimens in the lab and the field core samples. Durability analysis prediction can be obtained based on the fatigue lifetime predictive model accordingly, which can provide more information about the fatigue lifetime and the rehabilitation planning of existing pavements in the future accordingly.