Fatigue cracking and moisture damage are two important modes of distresses in asphalt pavements. Recently, the Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) was used to characterize fatigue cracking and evaluate the effects of moisture damage on the Fine Aggregate Matrix (FAM) portion of asphalt mixtures. The FAM specimens should be properly fabricated to represent the composition and structure of the fine portion of the mixture. The objective of the first phase of this study was to develop a standard test procedure for preparing FAM specimens such that it is representative of the mixture. The method consists of preparing loose full asphalt mixtures and sieving through different sizes. Then, the ignition oven was used to determine the binder content associated with the small size materials (passing on sieve #16). Sieve #16 is used to separate fine aggregates from the coarse aggregates. The applicability of this new method will be evaluated using a number of asphalt mixtures. The objective of the second phase of this study was to develop software to analyze the data from DMA test. Such software will enable engineers and researchers to perform the complex analysis in very short time. This is Microsoft Windows ® based software, executable in any hardware configuration under this operational system.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the viscoelastic properties of current large digital storage magnetic tape materials, using a custom ultra-low frequency dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA). Through the correlated effects of frequency and temperature, the long term mechanical properties of the magnetic tape can be simulated and used for predictive analysis of long term storage quality and stability of each individual tape given applicable storage conditions. Two magnetic tapes of primary interest reviewed in this paper are both current leading high capacity tapes, one having a poly(ethylene naphthalate) or PEN substrate and the other an aromatic polyamide or ARAMID substrate. The phase angle between the two signals and the peak strain based elastic modulus (E) were then used to determine the storage modulus (E'), loss modulus (E"), and the loss tangent (tan 8). These viscoelastic characteristics of the material were determined for each individual experimental sample. The combined data was then used to create comparative plots of each sample type allowing for a more conclusive look at the magnetic tape properties under the given conditions. It is found that viscoelastic deformation, or energy loss in the material, increasingly occurs at low frequencies. These experiments also verify that viscoelastic loss also occurs due to molecular orientation and can have a large impact on results. A final comparison is also made between the two leading tape materials commonly used in industry currently by taking a direct look at relative loss in conjunction with the materials overall complex elastic modulus. This allows a more definitive strength comparison of the defined materials · under given conditions.