In this study, low temperature cracking of asphalt concrete is investigated based on a laboratory experimental program including the design variables of aggregate type, gradation, asphalt content, binder grading, binder modification, and the experimental variables of cooling rate, and specimen size. The design of experiment is proposed according to the fractional factorial design principles to reduce the required number of test specimens. Mix designs are performed according to the Superpave mix design guidelines using materials obtained from the Turkish General Directorate of High-ways. In the course of this study, a test setup for thermal stress restrained specimen test for asphalt concrete is developed and used successfully to test a number of as-phalt concrete beam specimens. The same setup is also used for measuring the glass transition temperatures to obtain various thermo-volumetric properties of mixtures. Statistical methods are used to identify the effect of experimental variables on frac-ture strength, fracture temperature and other dependent variables obtained from the testing program. Statistical models are also developed to predict the fracture strength, fracture temperature and other thermo-volumetric properties of mixtures. Results of analyses show that aggregate type, binder modification, and asphalt content significantly affect both the fracture strength and fracture temperature of asphalt concrete. While the glass transition temperature is affected by only aggregate type, coefficients of contraction before and after the glass transition temperature are not influenced by any of the experimental variables. The results of this study provide an important basis to prevent low temperature cracking in asphalt concrete pavements.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612696/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 December 2010 |
| Creators | Qadir, Adnan |
| Contributors | Guler, Murat Dr. |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Ph.D. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for METU campus |
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