Advanced Testing and Characterization of Bituminous Materials ~ Loizos, Partl, Scarpas & Al-Qadi (eds) © 2009 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-55854-9. Influence of temperature and aging on laboratory fatigue performance of asphalt mixtures I. Artamendi, B. Allen & P. Phillips Technical and Development Department, Aggregate Industries, Ashbourne, UK ABSTRACT: This paper presents a laboratory study into fatigue characteristics of bituminous mixtures using the indirect tensile test. Three different asphalt concrete dense binder course materials were used in the study. These include an AC 20 designed with a 40/60 pen bitumen and two AC 14 designed with a 10/20 pen bitumen and a polymer modi- fied binder, respectively. Controlled stress fatigue tests were carried out at two temperatures, namely 20 and 10°C, on both unaged and aged cylindrical specimens. As the stiffness val- ues of the materials were significantly high, reduced specimen thicknesses of 25 mm were employed to generate the required horizontal stresses. These specimens were obtained by sawing in half 50 mm thick specimens cored from roller compacted slabs. Furthermore, com- parisons were made between the stiffness values of the core specimens and their respective halves. As regards fatigue performance, it was found that as the temperature decreased the fatigue life of the AC 20 material decreased, whereas those of the AC 14s, increased. Aged materials also showed shorter lives than the unaged ones but this reduction was more severe for the AC 20 mixture. 1 INTRODUCTION Fatigue cracking is one of the major distresses experienced in asphalt pavements and occurs when a bituminous asphalt layer is subjected to repeated loading under the passing traffic. Load-induced fatigue cracking could lead to significant damage and consequent failure of flexible pavements. It is, therefore, necessary to characterise the fatigue behaviour of bitumi- nous mixtures both in the laboratory and on site. In the laboratory, there are many techniques to depict fatigue behaviour, including bending tests, direct and indirect tensile tests. Furthermore, different approaches have been used to define failure due to fatigue (Artamendi & Khalid, 2005). In Europe, the methods for char- acterising fatigue are specified in EN 12697-24. In the UK, on the other hand, the Indirect Tensile Fatigue Test (ITFT) has been the preferred method to assess fatigue resistance of asphalt mixtures, In this test, a cylindrical specimen is subjected to a repeated pulse load across its vertical axis until it cracks (Brown, 1995). The resistance of a bituminous material to fatigue cracking is affected by many factors which can be broadly classified as material and environmental factors. Material factors include the volumetric composition of the mixture; in particular, binder content and air void content, and the rheological properties of the binder. Environmental factors include among others the ambient temperature and the age of the material (SHRP, 1994). The aim of this study was to investigate the fatigue performance of various asphalt mix- tures by means of the Indirect Tensile Fatigue Test. The materials used were produced with two penetration grade binders and a polymer modified binder. Fatigue tests were carried out at 20 and 10°C to investigate the effect of temperature on fatigue life. The effect of aging on fatigue performance was also investigated. 1852. MATERIALS AND SPECIMEN PREPARATION Three dense binder course asphalt concrete (AC) mixtures were designed in the laboratory and used in the study. These include an AC 20 designed with a 40/60 pen bitumen and two AC 14 designed with a 10/20 pen bitumen and a polymer modified binder (PMB), respectively. The AC 20 material was designed at 4.1% binder content. The two AC 14s were designed at the same binder content, thus, 5.3%, Particle size distribution for these materials is presented in Figure 1. Mixture composition is presented in Table 1. Porphyritic andesite aggregates and limestone filler were used in the study. Proportioned aggregate blends were heated at the selected temperatures, ic. 170°C for the AC 20 and 180°C for the AC 14s, and mixed with the binders also heated at the same temperatures. The mix- tures were then compacted to 305 x 305 x 50 mm’ slabs using a laboratory roller compactor in accordance with EN 12697-33. Compaction temperature was 160 and 170°C for the AC 20 and AC 14 respectively. Target air void content for compacted mixtures was 4%. Six slabs were made per material. Four specimens, 100 mm diameter, were then cored from each slab which gave a total of 24 cores per material. These specimens were used to determine bulk densities and air void contents as per EN 12697-6 Proc. C-sealed and EN 12697-8, as shown in Table 2 (average values). The maximum density of the mixtures was determined as per EN 12697-5 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 — —=—AC 20 o AC 14 Passing (%) 0.01 0.4 1 10 100 Figure 1. Particle size distribution. Table 1, Composition of AC mixtures, AC 2040/60 Pen AC 1410/20Pen AC 14 PMB Component % by mass % by mass % by mass 20mm 28.8 14mm 86 27 27 10mm 86 10.4 104 6mm 86 104 104 Dust 33.6 45.5 43.5 Limestone filler 7.7 57 57 Binder 4 53 53 186Table 2. Density and voids of AC mixtures. Maximum density Bulk density (sealed) Voids Material (kg/m) (kg/m) ~ AC 2040/60 Pen 2564 2471 3.6 AC141020Pen 2537 2446 36 AC 14 PMB 2534 2438 38 3. EXPERIMENTAL ‘The Indirect Tensile Stiffness Modulus (ITSM) test was used to determine the stiffness of the materials (BS DD 213: 1993). In this test a cylindrical specimen is subjected to a load pulse across its vertical diametral axis and the resultant deformation along the horizontal diam- tral axis is measured by two Linear Variable Differential transducers (LVDTs). The stiffness modulus is then calculated as follows: P = 02) a where E =stiffness modulus (MPa); P = peak vertical load (N): Af = peak deformation along the horizontal diametral axis (mm); 1 = specimen thickness (mm): and v = Poisson’s ratio {assumed to be 0.35). Furthermore, standard “target deformation”, ie. horizontal deforma- tion produced by the peak load, of 0.005% of the specimen diameter (controlled deformation stiffness test) was used The fatigue characteristics of the different mixtures were determined by means of the Indirect Tensile Fatigue Test (ITFT) (BS DD AFB: 2002). In this test, a cylindrical specimen is subjected to a repeated compressive pulse load across its vertical diametral axis. This load originates a relatively uniform constant tensile stress at the centre of the specimen, The repeated application of the load causes the specimen to crack along the vertical diameter. The maximum tensile stress at the centre of the specimen is given by: 2. axdxt % @ where o, = maximum tensile stress at the centre of the specimen (kPa); d= specimen diam- eter (mum); and P and 1 are defined as before, Furthermore, during the test the applied stress and the vertical permanent deformation of the specimen, measured with two LVDTs, are recorded at selected intervals. The fatigue life (1) is defied as the number of load applica- tions that causes complete fracture of the specimen. When the specimen does not fracture completely, the number of cycles corresponding to a vertical displacement of 9 mm is used. The test set-up is presented in Figure 2 Moreover, for the indirect tensile test the initial tensile strain, ¢,, at the centre of the speci men can be obtained as follows: & = 21000 @) 0 where £, is the stiffness modulus at the corresponding tensile stress o,. Thus, to determine the initial strain a stiffness test was first carried out at the selected tensile stress (controlled-stress stiffness test). Then, the same specimen was used for fatigue testing at that tensile stress. ‘As regards the tests conditions, controlled deformation stiffness tests were carried out on 50mm thick cylindrical specimens at a temperature of 20°C, For controlled stress stiffness tests and fatigue tests, however, 25 mm thick specimens were used. These specimens were obtained 187Figure 2, Indirect tensile fatigue test set-up. by cutting in half 50 mm thick specimens cored from the slabs. This specimen thickness was used to generate the required level of tensile stresses for the materials and test conditions selected with the equipment available, Fatigue test were then performed at 20 and 10°C. Also, aged specimens were used in the study. The aging protocol consisted of conditioning 25 mm thick specimens at 85°C for 5 days in a fun-assisted oven (Harrigan et al. 1994). Fatigue tests on aged specimens were then carried out at 20°C. A minimum of 10 specimens were tested per material and test condition 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 41 Stiffness Controlled deformation stiffness tests test at 20°C on SO mm thick specimens at a target deformation of 5 jim were first performed and the results are presented in Table 3. These values represent average values from 24 specimens per mixture. Data showed that the mixture with the harder bitumen, i.e. AC 14 10/20 pen, was the stiffer followed by the polymer modi- fied mixture, ic. AC 14 PMB, and the conventional mixture, i.e. AC 20 40/60 pen. For fatigue testing, the stiffness of the specimens at the required stress levels was first determined. Figure 3 shows the result obtained at 20°C for 25 mm thick unaged specimens. Results indicated that for AC 20 40/60 pen and AC 14 PMB the stiffness values were inde- pendent of the applied stress indicating linear viscoelastic behaviour for the range of stresses selected, i.e. from 400 to 800 kPa approximately. For AC 14 10/20 pen, however, the stiffness values tended to decrease at high stress levels suggesting non-linear behaviour as these levels, as seen in Figure 3. Average stiffness values and standard deviations from tests at different stress levels are pre sented in Table 3. The table also includes average stiffness values from controlled deformation stiffness test. Results indicated that, at 20°C, the average stiffness values obtained from con- trolled stress stiffness tests were lower than those determined from controlled deformation stiffness test. The largest difference was found for the AC 20 40/60 pen (28% lower), followed by the AC 14 PMB (19% lower) and the AC 10/20 pen (4% lower). These differences were attributed to specimen thickness, ic. 50 and 25 mm, and applied loads (stresses) that were 18810000 8000 é . = 6000 $ ° a 8 + : oo! 2 "9 48 4000 as i a ’ a" 2000 AC 20 40/60 pen @ AC 14 10/20 pen co AC 14 PMB ° ; 200 400 600 800 © 10001200 Stress (kPa) Figure 3. Relationship between stiffness and applied stress. Table 3, Average stiffness values and standard deviations E (MPa) :, (MPa) Material T=20C T=20C T=10C T=20°C- Aged ‘AC 2040/60 pen 5141627) 3724 (583) 116531555) 7398 (317) AC 141020 pen -7532(1082)—«7239(1018) 133272796) 9451 (690) AC 14 PMB 6364 (552) 5141 (375) 14549 (1862) 7434 (739) E = Stiffness from controlled deformation tests, E, ~ Stiffness from controlled stress tests. mauich higher for the constants stress stiffiness tests. It can also be seen that for a mixture with 2.20 mm maximum aggregate size, testing specimens 25 mm thick leads to significant lower stiffness values and larger variability Table 3 also shows average stiffness values from controlled stress test carried out at 10°C. Results showed that as the temperature decreased the stiffness modulus increased as a result of the viscoelastic character of the binders, Furthermore, data also showed higher tempera- ture susceptibility of the AC 20 mixture than the AC 14s mixtures, with the AC 14 10/20 pen being the least temperature susceptible of all. As regards aging, it can be seen that aged specimens had higher stiffness than those unaged due to hardening of the binder by oxidation. Furthermore, data presented in Table 3 sug- gested higher oxidation rate of the soft binder compare to the PMB and the hard bitumen which aged relatively the least 42 Fatigue Fatigue data have been used to derive a relationship between the initial tensile strain, ,, and fatigue life, N,, as follows (Monismith & Deacon, 1969} d =] @ 3 189‘Table 4, Materials constants and fatigue failure results, Temperature A. m R Material co) (umm) (Cycles) AC 2040/60 pen 20 38010" «483086 IS 29229 10 9.26% 10% 662081108 S417 20 (aged) 79310" S44 O81 80 2408 AC 1410/20 pen 20 3.40x10% 4870.95 95 21157 10 gs2x10" 4550792 32281 20 (aged) 656x 10" S13 0.89 90 10295 AC 14 PMB 20 136x102 3.53087 66 10254 10 173x108 3470.87 a 17926 20 (aged) 184x10" 452091 5 7314 where A and m are regression constants that depend on both the material and the test conditions Figure 4 shows the fatigue lives against the initial strain for the materials and conditions investigated. It can be seen that when the temperature decreased the fatigue life of the AC 20 material also decreased. For the AC 14 materials, on the other hand, the opposite effect was observed; thus, as the temperature decreased the fatigue live increased. This behaviour has been mainly attributed to differences in binder content and, consequently, to binder film thickness between mixtures. For the AC 20 designed at 4.1% binder content the relatively thinner binder film surrounding the aggregates stiffened as the temperature decreased. As a result, the mixture became more brittle, For the AC 14s designed at 5.3% binder, how- ever, thicker and stiffer binder films around the aggregates increased the overall resistance to fatigue. The effect of ageing on laboratory fatigue performance can also be seen in Figure 4. Data shows the detrimental effect of aging on fatigue life. Aging of the binder due to oxidation leads to loss of volatile components of the bitumen resulting in lack of ductility and adhe- sion (Karlsson & Isacsson, 2006). Furthermore, the decrease in fatigue life as a result of aging was more severe for the AC 20 which could be attributed to higher oxidation rates of the thinner binder films surrounding the aggregates. Regression constants, 4 and m, and regression coefficients, R®, for the fatigue relationships given by equation 4 are presented in Table 4. The constant m (slope) gives and indication of the susceptibility of the material to applied strain. Results showed that the PMB material was the least susceptible of all, as seen by the values of the constant m. Also, the susceptibil- ity of the mixtures to the applied strain increased with aging. Furthermore, R? values for the AC 20 were lower than those for the AC 14s, These differences were attributed to size effects ‘Two criteria, one based on the microstrain at 10° loading cycles (¢,) and the other based on the number of loading cycles at 200 microstrain (N,,,), have also been used to evaluate, in a simply way, the effect of material type, temperature and age on fatigue performance Calculated ¢, and N.,, values are presented in Table 4. It can be seen that in general the two criteria agreed relatively well. 43° Suitability of the ITFT During this study some concerns have arisen regarding the suitability of the UKs ITFT to adequately depict fatigue characteristics of asphalt mixtures. Some of these concerns are outlined below. The ITET is typically carried out at 20°C. At this temperature, however, fatigue cracking is rarely observed. Moreover, laboratory fatigue testing is normally performed at lower tem- peratures, typically 10°C (Di Benedetto et al. 2003). 1901000000 4100000 = 10000 1000 a) AC 20 40/60 pen 100 1000000 100000 z 10000 1000 100 “Strain (um/m) 1000 b) AC 14 10/20 pen 100 1000000 100000 z 10000 1000 100 Strain (urmim) 1000 ©) AC 14 PMB at=10¢ = T=20-aged 100 Strain (um/m) Figure 4. Relationships between fatigue life and initial strain, 191 1000Different modes of failure have also been observed for ITFT, as shown in Figure 5. In the majority of the cases the specimens fractured completely or a visible fatigue crack was clearly present (see Fig 5a). Sometimes, however, the specimen did not fracture and there were not any visible cracks. In these cases the failure was attributed to the accumulation of perma- nent vertical deformation (see Fig 5b). Finally, a reduced number of specimens failed due to indentation of the loading strip into the specimen (see Fig Sc). ‘The ITFT is a controlled stress mode of loading test and it is, therefore, more applicable to thick asphalt pavements where high stiffness is the fundamental parameter that underpins fatigue life. Controlled strain fatigue tests, on the other hand, have been associated with thin conventional flexible pavements, where the elastic recovery properties of the material have a fundamental effect on fatigue life (Khalid, 2000). Furthermore, controlled strain mode of loading is the method generally adopted for pavement design purposes (Delorme et al. 2007 and AASHTO, 1994) Moreover, the control of the load (stress) during the test is sometimes poor. This gener- ally occurs when the applied stress selected is high (>1000 kPa) and the stiffness is also high. High stiffness could be due to material composition and/or test conditions (low temperature and/or aged material). Figure 6 shows fatigue data, vertical deformation and applied tensile stresses, for an AC 10/20 pen specimen tested at 10°C. The initial stiffness of the specimen at this temperature was 13228 MPa and the target tensile stress was 1000 kPa. The figure shows that although the average tensile stress for the whole duration of the test was 1018 kPa, which Figure 5. Failure modes for ITFT specimens. 1 Vertical deformation (mm) a Tensile stress (kPa) (egy) ssons oysuay Vertical deformation (mm) 20000 40000 60000 No of load applications Figure 6, Vertical deformation and tensile stress for a test a 10°C, 192was close to the target of 1000 kPa, the variability of the tensile stress during the test was significant. Finally, in the ITFT the maximum horizontal strain is determined by performing a con- tuolled stress stiffness test at the corresponding stress level. The calculated stiffness and stress are then used to determine the strain using equation 3. This strain is then assumed to be the initial strain for the fatigue test. In the Indirect Tensile Test on cylindrical shaped specimens (ITT-CY) as per EN12697-24 Annex E, however, the horizontal deformation is measured continuously by means of transducers. The initial strain is then measured at the 100th load application once the deformation has become stable, It should be noted that although this is an improvement with respect to the ITFT, the strain measured during ITT-CY is the per- manent strain and not the resilient, ic. recoverable one (Said & Wahlstrm, 2000). Conse- quently, the evolution of the stiffiess during the test can not be computed as both stress and resilient strain are required. 5 CONCLUSIONS From the laboratory work carried out in this study the following conclusion can be drawn: * Average stiffness values obtained from controlled stress stiffness tests were lower than those determined from controlled deformation stiffness test. These differences were attrib- uted to specimen thickness, ie, 50 and 25 mm, and applied stress that was much higher for constant stress stiffness tests. + It was found that as the temperature decreased the fatigue life of the AC 20 mate- rial decreased, whereas those of the AC Ids, increased This behaviour was attributed to differences in binder content and, consequently, to binder film thickness, between mixtures. + Aging due to binder oxidation had a detrimental effect on fatigue life. Furthermore, the decrease in fatigue life as a result of aging was more severe for the AC 20 which could be attributed to higher oxidation rates of the thinner binder films surrounding the aggregates. + The polymer modified material was less susceptible to the applied strain that the materi- als produced with the straight run binders, as seen by the values of the constant m on the fatigue life vs strain relationship. + During this study some concerns were arisen regarding the suitability of the UKs ITFT to adequately depict fatigue characteristics of asphalt mixtures. These included poor control of the stress during the test at high stress levels (+1000 kPa), indirect determination of the initial strain by means of a stiffness tests and the different nature of the failure modes observed (fatigue, permanent deformation and indentation). 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