Failure Behavior of Bituminous Mixtures

Abstract

This paper describes the test results concerning the failure behavior of bituminous mixtures which is required for rational designing of pavement structures and pavement performance evaluation. For single load application tests, stress-strain relationships of bituminous mixtures were investigated under various loading conditions at various temperatures, and, at the same time, dynamic responses under repeated applications of load and fatigue properties of bituminous mixtures were investigated. For conventional bituminous mixtures, it was found that strain at failure was in the order of 10-5 to 10-2, depending upon the loading and temperature conditions. In spite of the fact that strain at failure in the single load application test was in the order of 10-3 to 10-2, it was shown that the strain level of 10-4 and 10-5 in the repeated applications of load and temperature conditions caused fatigue failure. Most of single load application tests were carried out by means of flexure; and the mode of failure, relationships between strength vs. temperature, strain at failure vs. temperature, and stiffness at failure vs. temperature were obtained; and convergence of the strain in ductile failure