At head of title: National Cooperative Highway Research Program.

Abstract: The determination of strain is an important step when using a mechanistic-empirical structural design, such as the AASHTO 2002 Design Guide. This thesis investigated the use of accelerated pavement testing system on Hot Mix Asphalt pavements to determine actual transverse and longitudinal strains under loads of varying frequency at different temperatures. A Model Mobile Load Simulator (MMLS3) was used in this study. Laboratory compacted pavement slabs were instrumented with thermocouples for monitoring the pavement's temperature, and with strain gauges in transverse and longitudinal directions at the bottom surface to measure strain. The slabs were subjected to loading by the MMLS3, running at different speeds. The pavement slab and accelerated loading equipment were enclosed in an environmental chamber to control temperatures during testing. Strains were also determined from layered elastic analysis after determining modulus values by two different methods -- Resilient modulus testing and Witczak's dynamic modulus equation. Comparisons of pavement strains calculated through the use of layered elastic design software and actual strains obtained during loading were made. The test results have shown a significant difference between strain values obtained using an instrumented pavement slab and those obtained with the use of standard resilient modulus values or dynamic modulus values determined by using a typical layered elastic design model. To avoid the discrepancies, two approaches are proposed -- The first is modeling strain with accelerated pavement testing and the second one is using a correction factor.

One of the main requirements of designing perpetual pavements is to determine the endurance limit of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). The purpose of this study was to validate the endurance limit for HMA using laboratory beam fatigue tests. A mathematical procedure was developed to determine the endurance limit of HMA due to healing that occurs during the rest periods between loading cycles. Relating healing to endurance limit makes this procedure unique compared to previous research projects that investigated these concepts separately. An extensive laboratory testing program, including 468 beam tests, was conducted according to AASHTO T321-03 test procedure. Six factors that affect the fatigue response of HMA were evaluated: binder type, binder content, air voids, test temperature, rest period and applied strain. The endurance limit was determined when no accumulated damage occurred indicating complete healing. Based on the test results, a first generation predictive model was developed to relate stiffness ratio to material properties. A second generation stiffness ratio model was also developed by replacing four factors (binder type, binder content, air voids, and temperature) with the initial stiffness of the mixture, which is a basic material property. The model also accounts for the nonlinear effects of the rest period and the applied strain on the healing and endurance limit. A third generation model was then developed by incorporation the number of loading cycles at different locations along the fatigue degradation curve for each test in order to account for the nonlinearity between stiffness ratio and loading cycles. In addition to predicting endurance limit, the model has the ability to predict the number of cycles to failure at any rest period and stiffness combination. The model was used to predict fatigue relationship curves for tests with rest period and determining the K1, K2, and K3 fatigue cracking coefficients. The three generation models predicted close endurance limit values ranging from 22 to 204 micro strains. After developing the third generation stiffness ratio model, the predicted endurance limit values were integrated in the strain-Nf fatigue relationships as a step toward incorporating the endurance limit in the MEPDG software. The results of this study can be used to design perpetual pavements that can sustain a large number of loads if traffic volumes and vehicle weights are controlled.

"TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 762: Laboratory Validation of an Endurance Limit for Asphalt Pavements presents models for the hot-mix asphalt fatigue endurance limit that are responsive to asphalt binder and mixture properties and healing between load cycles and are suitable for incorporation as algorithms in Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical Design and other design methods."--Publisher information.