Investigating the initiation of failure in asphalt concrete

Abstract

The Controle of the initial stage of failure in asphalt concrete pavement is essential in having a long service life. Investigation of the impact of strain level, binder ciontent, and additives is a sound start for monitoring the failure initiation in asphalt concrete. An attempt has been made in this work to implicate coal fly ash and silica fumes as partial substitute additives for mineral filler in the asphalt concrete mixture. Slab samples of asphalt concrete have been prepared by roller compaction with three binder content percentages. Beam specimens were obtained from the slab samples and subjected to dynamic flexural stresses under onstant strain levels of (750, 400, and 250) Microstrain. The decline in the initial flexural stiffness was monitored and the impact of  strain level, binder content, and additives on controling the deterioration in the initial flexural stiffness was evaluated. It was noticed that asphalt concrete mixture prepared with optimum binder content was able to reach the initial failure stage after 500 seconds of practicing the dynamic loading. The deterioration in the initial flexural stiffness occur after (94.4, and 99.3) % of loading time when the constant strain level rises from (250, to 400 and 750) Microstrain respectively. It was concluded that implication of fly ash or silica fumes exhibits positive influence on the asphalt concrete mixture and was able to enhance the initial flexural stiffness by (40, and 20) % while it was able to extend the service life by (2.8, and 1.6) folds for (fly ash and silica fumes) treated mixtures respectively when compared with the control mixture.

Cite as:

Saad Issa Sarsam. (2024). Investigating the Initiation of Failure in Asphalt Concrete. Journal of Advances in Nanotechnology and Its Applications, 6(2), 24–32. 

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12760234