A contribution to texture analysis of pavements under simulated polishing: some new findings

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pavement surface texture plays a leading role in the tire-road interaction. To increase the understanding of the pavement texture evolution, two typical asphalt wearing courses, Asphalt Concrete (AC) and Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA), were polished using the real car tires of Harbin accelerated polishing machine (HAPM). After each polishing cycle, the surfaces were reconstructed using X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) technology. Then, the texture evolution was analysed using material area ratio and two-dimensional power spectral density (2D-PSD). In addition, the critical texture wavelength related to British Pendulum Number (BPN) was determined through Pearson analysis. The results show that the texture roughness changes asynchronously at all observed scales (0.1∼80 mm) under the polishing effects. During the short-term polishing, the surface becomes rougher due to bare aggregates and extended gaps caused by the removal of surfacing mortar. With the increasing polishing cycles, the roughness at short wavelengths under 0.6 mm significantly decreases. Meanwhile, the wear rate in the initial stage is higher than that in the subsequent polishing period. The mixture SMA-13 is more wear-resistant than AC-13 during the polishing. It is also found that the texture with a wavelength under 5 mm is well correlated with BPN.