SEDL / STP / STP1265-EB / STP15560S

Validation of SHRP A-003A Flexural Beam Fatigue Test

Deacon, JA
Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

Tayebali, AA
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Rowe, GM
Technical Vice President, SWK Pavement Engineering, Millington, NJ

Monismith, CL
Professor of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Pages: 16    Published: Jan 1995

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Abstract

The recently completed Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) Project A-003A included the development of a flexural beam test for measuring fatigue of asphalt mixes and an analysis system based on multilayer elastic theory to estimate in-situ performance. The ability of laboratory measurements—coupled with simulations of load response in situ—to predict in-situ pavement performance is demonstrated. Specifically the current investigation shows that controlled-strain laboratory tests are suitable for pavement performance predictions; that A-003A test measurements are sensitive to a variety of fundamental mix properties known to affect fatigue performance and that they compare favorably with measurements using other state-of-the-art equipment; and that, using calibrations developed by the investigation, in-service pavement performance can be predicted for a variety of mixtures, climates, pavement structures, and traffic loadings. Attempts to simulate mixture performance under the accelerated testing of both laboratory wheel tracking and ALF experimentation yielded mixed results.