New procedures and criteria for asphalt mixes and pavements design regarding fatigue failure and thermal stresses

Abstract

Fatigue cracking and thermal shrinkage are two distress mechanisms that should be considered in asphalt mixtures and pavements design. Both distresses are complex and difficult to simulate in laboratory, especially the fatigue testing, which needs expensive and time-consuming equipment. This is the reason why these mechanisms are hardly taken into account for the asphalt mixtures design. This paper is about two simple procedures developed at the Road Research Laboratory of the Technical University of Catalonia for the mixtures design and assessment facing fatigue failure: Fénix and EBADE tests. Moreover, EBADE test allows taking into consideration the thermal stresses caused by temperature decrease and the stresses caused by traffic cyclic loads at the same time during the cracking process. These tests show the significant effect of thermal stresses in the fatigue process.