Temperature Variation and Displacement Behavior of Model Asphalt Pavements during Repeated Plate-Loading Tests

Abstract

In this research, series of repeated plate-loading tests were carried out on relatively large-scale model asphalt pavements with three different pavement sections in order to evaluate the behavior of asphalt pavement. Two different asphalt mixtures, straight and modified, and two different base-course materials and mechanically stabilized stone, were used in the tested pavement sections. Moreover, three different temperature conditions, immediately after construction, normal temperature and 60 degrees C, were imposed in the tests. This paper focuses and discusses on the temperature variation and displacement behavior of the asphalt pavements observed during repeated plate-loading tests. As the results, a large deflection near the loading plate took place for the temperature condition of immediately after construction; but as temperature went down, the deflection decreased near the loading plate and a bit increased away from it. This was due to an increase of the stiffness of the asphalt mixture and was indicative of that the load transmissibility of the asphalt mix layer rejuvenated with a decrease in temperature. There existed linear relationships between the surface displacement differential, d0-d10, and the average temperature of surface layer in semi-logarithmic coordinates. From these relationships, it was confirmed that the modified asphalt mixture was less sensitive to temperature than the straight asphalt mixture and that the asphalt-treated base layer also exhibited temperature sensitivity. For the covering abstract see ITRD E118503.