Experimental investigation on performance deterioration of asphalt mixture under freeze

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Experimental investigation on performance deterioration of asphalt mixture under freeze–thaw cycles

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Lin Cong / Minda Ren / Jiachen Shi / Fan Yang / Guihong Guo

Freeze-thaw cycling is a widely used experiment for characterizing the moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixture. Moreover, it can also be used as a simulation for pavement moisture damage in northern latitudes. To investigate the effect of freeze–thaw cycles on the performance deterioration of asphalt mixtures, three types of dense graded asphalt mixture specimens with different asphalt contents were prepared. These specimens were performed freeze–thaw cycles with the maximum cycles being ten times. Volumetric parameter measurements and Indirect Tensile Strength (IDT) test were carried out after one, three, five, and ten cycles. Based on the phenomenological method and macro damage mechanics, the damage variable composed of Strain Energy Density (SED) was presented to characterize the performance deterioration of asphalt mixture. Three types of models were chosen to perform regression analysis between the damage variable and freeze–thaw cycles. The results indicate that with the increase of freeze–thaw cycles, IDT strength and the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) decrease while Bulk Relative Density (BRD) increases first afterward decreases. It is suggested that the internal air-voids in specimens turn into open air-voids between five cycles and ten cycles. Compared to the other two models, S-typed Sigmoidal Logistic function is more suitable to describe the damage growth due to freeze–thaw cycles. Another finding is that an appropriate increase of asphalt content has a positive effect on slowing the damage growth in asphalt mixture.