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- All Subjects: HMA
- All Subjects: Pavements
- Creators: Mamlouk, Michael
In recent years, an increase of environmental temperature in urban areas has raised many concerns. These areas are subjected to higher temperature compared to the rural surrounding areas. Modification of land surface and the use of materials such as concrete and/or asphalt are the main factors influencing the surface energy balance and therefore the environmental temperature in the urban areas. Engineered materials have relatively higher solar energy absorption and tend to trap a relatively higher incoming solar radiation. They also possess a higher heat storage capacity that allows them to retain heat during the day and then slowly release it back into the atmosphere as the sun goes down. This phenomenon is known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and causes an increase in the urban air temperature. Many researchers believe that albedo is the key pavement affecting the urban heat island. However, this research has shown that the problem is more complex and that solar reflectivity may not be the only important factor to evaluate the ability of a pavement to mitigate UHI. The main objective of this study was to analyze and research the influence of pavement materials on the near surface air temperature. In order to accomplish this effort, test sections consisting of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA), Porous Hot Mix asphalt (PHMA), Portland Cement Concrete (PCC), Pervious Portland Cement Concrete (PPCC), artificial turf, and landscape gravels were constructed in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Air temperature, albedo, wind speed, solar radiation, and wind direction were recorded, analyzed and compared above each pavement material type. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the air temperature at 3-feet and above, regardless of the type of the pavement. Near surface pavement temperatures were also measured and modeled. The results indicated that for the UHI analysis, it is important to consider the interaction between pavement structure, material properties, and environmental factors. Overall, this study demonstrated the complexity of evaluating pavement structures for UHI mitigation; it provided great insight on the effects of material types and properties on surface temperatures and near surface air temperature.
Perpetual Pavements, if properly designed and rehabilitated, it can last longer than 50 years without major structural rehabilitation. Fatigue endurance limit is a key parameter for designing perpetual pavements to mitigate bottom-up fatigue cracking. The endurance limit has not been implemented in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide software, currently known as DARWin-ME. This study was conducted as part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 9-44A to develop a framework and mathematical methodology to determine the fatigue endurance limit using the uniaxial fatigue test. In this procedure, the endurance limit is defined as the allowable tensile strains at which a balance takes place between the fatigue damage during loading, and the healing during the rest periods between loading pulses. The viscoelastic continuum damage model was used to isolate time dependent damage and healing in hot mix asphalt from that due to fatigue. This study also included the development of a uniaxial fatigue test method and the associated data acquisition computer programs to conduct the test with and without rest period. Five factors that affect the fatigue and healing behavior of asphalt mixtures were evaluated: asphalt content, air voids, temperature, rest period and tensile strain. Based on the test results, two Pseudo Stiffness Ratio (PSR) regression models were developed. In the first model, the PSR was a function of the five factors and the number of loading cycles. In the second model, air voids, asphalt content, and temperature were replaced by the initial stiffness of the mix. In both models, the endurance limit was defined when PSR is equal to 1.0 (net damage is equal to zero). The results of the first model were compared to the results of a stiffness ratio model developed based on a parallel study using beam fatigue test (part of the same NCHRP 9-44A). The endurance limit values determined from uniaxial and beam fatigue tests showed very good correlation. A methodology was described on how to incorporate the second PSR model into fatigue analysis and damage using the DARWin-ME software. This would provide an effective and efficient methodology to design perpetual flexible pavements.
In this research effort, a reliability framework is developed using Monte Carlo simulation for predicting the fatigue life of AC material using the S-VECD model. The reliability analysis reveals that the fatigue life prediction is very sensitive to the uncertainty in the input variables. FAM testing in similar loading conditions as AC, and upscaling of AC modulus and damage response using FAM properties from a relatively simple homogenized continuum approach shows promising results. The FAM phase fatigue life prediction and upscaling of FAM results to AC show more reliable fatigue life prediction than the fatigue life prediction of AC material using its experimental data. To assess the sensitivity of fatigue life prediction model to uncertainty in the input variables, a parametric sensitivity study is conducted on the S-VECD model. Overall, the findings from this research show promising results both in terms of upscaling FAM to AC properties and the reliability of fatigue prediction in AC using experimental data on FAM.
In this research, an effort was undertaken to gather and collect most recent asphalt mixtures’ design data and compare it to historical data such as those available in the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP), maintained by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The new asphalt mixture design data was collected from 25 states within the United States and separated according to the four suggested climatic regions. The previously designed asphalt mixture designs in the 1960’s present in the LTPP Database implemented for the test sections were compared with the recently designed pavement mixtures gathered, and pavement performance was assessed using predictive models.
Three predictive models were studied in this research. The models were related to three major asphalt pavement distresses: Rutting, Fatigue Cracking and Thermal Cracking. Once the performance of the asphalt mixtures was assessed, four ranking criteria were developed to support the assessment of the mix designs quality at hand; namely, Low, Satisfactory, Good or Excellent. The evaluation results were reasonable and deemed acceptable. Out of the 48 asphalt mixtures design evaluated, the majority were between Satisfactory and Good.
The evaluation methodology and criteria developed are helpful tools in determining the quality of asphalt mixtures produced by the different agencies. They provide a quick insight on the needed improvement/modification against the potential development of distress during the lifespan of the pavement structure.