Investigation of Fatigue Failure in Bituminous Base Mixes

Report No: 80-R36

Published in 1980

About the report:

A correlation between the results obtained with the fatigue test and those from the indirect tensile test on two base mixes was attempted in anticipation of the possible use of the latter test to design base mixes for maximum fatigue life. Two base mixes at several asphalt contents were tested at two test temperatures. Flexural fatigue tests and indirect tensile tests were performed for each mix and temperature condition. Unexpectedly, there was a very poor correlation between the constants of the fatigue equations and the strength and stiffness values from the indirect tensile tests. However, the asphalt content corresponding to the maximum fatigue life agreed generally with the asphalt content corresponding to maximum work in the indirect tensile test. The work computed from the indirect tensile test might be useful in selecting the asphalt content for the maximum fatigue life of base mixes.

Documents

80-R36

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Authors

G. W. Maupin, Jr., P.E.

Last updated: January 25, 2024