Prediction of Asphalt Mix Fatigue Life with Viscoelastic Material Properties

Abstract

A simplified fatigue model is presented that can predict the fatigue life of asphalt mixes using viscoelastic properties only. This fatigue model was originally developed with the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle and continuum damage mechanics and was reduced to a simple version that can predict fatigue life with viscoelastic properties only. On the basis of the experimental study conducted on 12 different types of asphalt mixes, it was observed that the fatigue behavior of asphalt mixes is affected by both the viscoelastic properties and the fatigue characteristics, but mostly by the viscoelastic properties. In addition, it was found that the coefficient of conventional strain-based fatigue models could be expressed in terms of viscoelastic material properties. In the verification study, the fatigue model was able to predict the fatigue life of various types of mixes at the same level of prediction accuracy without change in model coefficients. The fatigue model was also able to accurately predict the changes in the fatigue life of an asphalt mix due to the changes in the volumetric mix properties.