Effects of asphalt mixture and vehicle characteristics on rutting of Superpave pavements in accelerated testing

Two pavement test sections, constructed from Superpave mixtures with varying river sand contents, were tested under a 34-kip (151-kN) tandem axle load at the Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) facility in Kansas. Severe rutting was observed after 80,000 load repetitions on both test sections. To simulate rutting development, a three-parameter creep model was employed in the finite element analysis for capturing nonlinear (visco-elastic and visco-plastic) properties of the asphalt mixtures. A 2-D finite element model showed very promising simulation results both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this paper, the detailed analyses of the effects of the asphalt mixture material model parameters as well as the characteristics of the load assembly (tire pressure, wheel spacing, etc.) on the rutting of Superpave test sections at the Kansas APT have been described. The results indicate that the predicted (and measured) rut depth is very sensitive to the material parameters used in the creep model, the Superpave layer thickness, and the tire contact pressure. he predicted rut depth was not found to be very sensitive to the width of the tire contact area and the wheel spacing. Finally, rut-depth prediction equations for typical Superpave mixtures in Kansas were presented based on the finite element simulation results of this study.

• Authors:
  • Wu, Z
  • Hossain, M
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Accelerated Pavement Testing, 2nd, 2004, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 21p
• Monograph Title: Full scale accelerated pavement testing: a southern hemisphere and Asian perspective

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accelerated tests; Mathematical models; Mix design; Motor vehicle industry; Pavement layers; Pavements; Repeated loads; Rolling contact; Rutting; Superpave; Tests for suitability, service and quality; Thickness
• ATRI Terms: Accelerated testing; Mix design; Modelling; Pavement layer; Pavement testing; Repetitive loading; Rutting; Superpave; Thickness; Vehicle make; Vehicle pavement interaction
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pavements; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01389260
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 23 2012 3:17AM