Estimation of the fatigue endurance limit of HMAC for perpetual pavements

Abstract

A simplified procedure was described to estimate the FEL of three kinds of hot-mix asphalt concrete (HMAC) without doing any fatigue tests. The procedure required two fundamental properties of HMAC, tensile strength under different temperatures and strain rates, and flexural stiffness under different stain levels. This information can reliably be obtained in simple tests, which are the monotonic uniaxial tensile test (MUTT) and the four-point bending test (FPBT). A new parameter, the initial stress ratio R _initial, was introduced to connect these two tests, which was defined as the ratio of applied initial stress and tensile strength of the specimen. At last the FEL can be expressed as a function of the initial flexural stiffness, frequency and temperature. Obviously, this procedure has the potential to be very useful in view of long-life pavement design and time consuming traditional fatigue tests.

Keywords

fatigue endurance limit / hot-mix asphalt concrete / tensile strength / flexural stiffness / initial stress ratio

References

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