JOl Unal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development Vol.7 No.

3(2013)1
,

Impact of Surface Temperature on Fatigue Damage in

Asphalt Pavement *

WEI Lu( 'tllF&) 1 • • ,Sascha KAYSER2 , Frohmut WELLNER2

(1. School of Civil Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, Hefei Anhui 230601, China;

2. Institute of Urban and Pavement Engineering,Dresden University of Technology, Dresden 01069,Germany)

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Abstract: To evaluate the anti-fatigue penormance of asphalt pavement affected by temperature and solve the problem of an in­

accurate estimation of fatigue damage by adopting a single fixed temperature, the impact of different sunace temperatures and

their combinations on the fatigue damage to asphalt pavement is analyzed based on Miner law of accumulative fatigue damage,

taking the temperature field prediction model for asphalt pavement developed by Dresden University of Technology in Germany

for example. According to a considerable amount of measured sunace temperature data, different sunace temperature combina­

tions and representative values in temperature intervals are determined and the change regularity of fatigue damage in asphalt

pavement is studied. The analysis result shows that (1) the fatigue damage estimated by adopting sunace temperature combina­

tions is more accurate than that estimated by adopting a single fixed temperature; (2) when the number of temperature intervals

forming a temperature combination is considerably large, the estimated fatigue damage in asphalt pavement is more accurate,

whereas when the number of temperature intervals is considerably less,the fatigue damage caused by the representative values of

the temperature intervals varies; and (3) the fatigue damage caused by a high temperature (or upper limit) for the representa­

tive value of the temperature intervals is larger than that caused by a low temperature (lower limit).

Key words: road engineering; asphalt pavement; computer simulation; sunace temperature combination; fatigue damage; tem­

perature interval

perature at a certain depth of the pavement to the surface

1 Introduction
Asphalt mixture is a material that is dependent on
temperature; its mechanical properties and perfonnance
evidently vary with temperature. Fatigue cracking is one
of the most common damages in asphalt pavement; its
forming mechanism and developing process are closely
related to the distribution of the temperature field in the
asphalt pavement. The relevant literature shows that air
temperature and solar radiation are the major factors that
determine the distribution of the temperature field, and
consequently, the prediction model of the temperature
field in asphalt pavement was established. This model
mostly involves the pavement temperature, air tempera­
ture, and solar radiation, and rarely the surface tempera­
l
ture[ 2J. According to our study in Germany, the pre­
diction model of the temperature field developed by Dres­
den University of Technology and the relation of the tem-
temperature can be used for analyzing the impact of dif­
ferent surface temperatures and their combinations on the
fatigue damage in asphalt pavement, on the basis of a
considerable amount of measured surface temperature
data.
2 Prediction model of temperature field in asphalt
pavement
The air temperature periodically changes throughout
the day and the year, and accordingly, the pavement
temperature varies diurnally and seasonally. The change
in the surface temperature almost keeps pace with the
change in the air temperature, whereas the change in the
internal temperature in the lower asphalt layers has a lag­
ging effect. Whether in time or space, the temperature
field in asphalt pavement is not evenly distributed and
changes in a complex manner [3J• Over the years, the an-

Manuscript received April 16, 2013

� Supported by the Excellent Talent Foundation in Higher Education of Anhui Province of China (No. 2011 SQRL114ZD ); and the

Startup Fund for Doctor of Anhui lianzhu University of China

� $ E-mail address: weilu@ahjzu. edu. cn

J. Highway Transp. Res. Dev. (English Ed.), 2013, 7(3): 1-6

 2 Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development

alytical methods of theory and statistics have been devel­ Tab. 1 Relation of temperature function with time

oped to study the temperature field in the asphalt pave­ interval and temperature magnitude

ment; moreover, the prediction models of the tempera­ Temperature function Temperature magnitude
Time interval
ture field have been proposed at home and abroad [4 6J• ("C ) ( "C )

The prediction model of the temperature field in asphalt T, 10,00-19,00 MB <6.5

pavement developed by Dresden University of Technology 20,00-09,00 b.AB < 6. 5

is used in this study. In this model, the distribution of T, 22,00-01,00

6.5�MB <11. 5
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the temperature field is not only influenced by the air 07,00-08,00

temperature and the solar radiation but also detennined 02,00-06,00 6.5�MB <11. 5
Tj
mainly by the time interval and the temperature magni­ 02 :00-07:00 MB�I1.5

tude for one day[7] . On the basis of the different time in­ 09,00-11,00 6.5�b.AB <11. 5

tervals and temperature magnitudes in one day, the pre­ 08,00-09,00 MB�I1.5

diction model of the temperature field is fonned from 12 12,00-15,00 6.5�MB <11. 5

temperature functions, which are presented in table 1 16,00-18,00 6.5�MB <11. 5

and involve each temperature function of the time interval 19,00-21,00 6.5�MB <11. 5

and the temperature magnitude[8] . 21,00-01,00 MB�I1.5

In the prediction model presented in table 1, the 10,00-11,00 MB�I1.5

change in temperature with the depth of the pavement is 12,00-15,00 MB�I1.5

obtained from all the 12 different temperature functions. 16,00-18,00 MB�I1.5

Further, a standard five-polynomial function is developed 19,00-20,00 MB�I1.5
to simulate the 12 temperature functions, as shown in e­ Note: (1) T l , T2, ... , T12 represent the 12 temperature functions.
quation (1). (2) MB = ( T h- Tl )12, T hand Tl denote the highest and the lowest

1J(X) = ksxs +k4X4 + +kjX, (1) temperatures in one day, respectively.

where, {} (x) is the temperature at depth x from the (cm); and k, is the coefficient, which is dependent on
surface in asphalt pavement; x is the depth from surface the 12 temperature functions, as given in table 2.

Tab. 2 Coefficient ki

Temperature Coefficient ki
2
function k [ xl0-8('1:::/cm5)] k [ xl0-5('1:::/cm4)] Ie, [ xlO -, ("Clom') J kd xl0-4('1:::/ cm )] kl [ x 10 -4('1:::/cm)]
5 4
T, 0.000 - O.150 0.749 13.801 -1 046.637

T, 0.000 0.200 -1. 080 -16.730 1 772.060

Tj 0.000 0.580 -3.878 10.900 3 484.088

T, 0.000 1.870 -19.316 711.198 -10 444.002

T, 0.000 0.000 -2.781 270.694 -8 695.529

T, 37.000 -4.990 25.416 -552.203 2 614.524

T, 0.000 - O. 878 10.470 -435.711 6 431. 307

Ts 0.000 - O.183 5.652 -386.430 8 379.706

T, 0.000 2.138 -24.494 1 033.694 -18 776.821

Tw 0.000 0.000 -4.715 468.622 -15 753.326

Tn 63.000 -8. 305 41.567 -864.887 2 282.530

T" 0.000 -1. 878 20.713 -778.886 9 081.791

In equation (1), the surface temperature IS as­ tures are considered, the prediction model of the temper­
sumed to be 0 CC , which presents a standard equation of ature field is expressed by equation (2).
a temperature function. When different surface tempera- (2)

J. Highway Transp. Res. Dev. (English Ed.), 2013, 7(3): 1-6

 WEI Lu, et al: Impact of Smface Temperature on Fatigue Damage in Asphalt Pavement 3

where, {} is the surface temperature; and the rest of the

s
4.00
variables are the same as those in equation (1). 3.5li

2 Asphalt pavement design

The main aim to design asphalt pavement is to en­

sure the structural and functional performance that it pro­ 0.50
vides during its service life, which is the ultimate goal of 0.00 '-�iIll
-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 :0 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
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different design approaches. In order to achieve this Surface temperature ('C)

goal, structural design, materials, traffic loading, and

environmental conditions are all taken into consideration.
Furthennore, the change regularity in the pavement per­
formance as impacted by all the abovementioned factors
should be studied!9] .
A design procedure called Pavement Design Tools
(PaDesTo) for pavement design and analysis was devel­
oped by Institute of Urban and Pavement Engineering at
Dresden University of Technology. This procedure can
simulate the structural and functional perfonnance of as­
phalt pavement under the effects of different pavement
structures, materials, traffic loading, and environmental
l
conditions[ O 11J. According to the concept of considering
fatigue cracking as a controlling index, on the basis of
the prediction model of the temperature field, the stiff­
ness modulus of the asphalt mixture, and the fatigue e­
quation within the asphalt layer, fatigue damage is esti­
mated under the full range of axle loads, temperatures,
and temperature frequencies. The calculation results
used in this study are obtained from a PaDesTo simula­
tion.
Fig. 1 Frequencies distribution of surface temperatures of
asphalt pavement during 15 years
3.2 Surface temperature interval and its character­
istics
With the aim to accurately simulate the working
conditions for asphalt pavement and estimate the fatigue
damage caused by surface temperatures, the temperature
range of 70 "C from - 20 "C to + 50 "C is divided into
70 surface temperature intervals and the size of each sur­
face temperature interval is 1 OC. Each surface tempera­
ture interval [a, b) is characterized by a representative
temperature and temperature frequency f[a,b), as shown
in table 3. The representative temperature is exemplified
by the medium value (a + b) 12 in the interval [a, b) ,
and the temperature frequency f[a,b) is obtained by com­
bining all the frequencies in the interval [a, b) shown in
figure 1.
Tab. 3 Representative temperature and temperature frequency
of each surface temperature interval
Temperature interval Representative temperature Temperature frequency
[a,b)('C) ('C) f[a,b)

3 Analysis of surface temperature data [-20,-19) -19.5 f[ - 20, - 19 )

[-19,-18) -18.5 f[ -19, -18)

3.1 Surface temperature data
A large amount of measured surface temperature da­
[+49, +50J +49.5 f[ +49, +50]
ta of asphalt pavements was collected from a weather sta­
tion Klotzsche in Germany; these data were collected for 4 Analysis and estimation of fatigue damage
IS years from 1991 to 2005. As a result of analyzing the
4.1 Asphalt pavement structures
measured surface temperature data, we created the fre­
quency distribution histogram of the surface temperature, Four asphalt pavement structures (Sl' S2 ' S3 ' and

as shown in figure 1. In figure 1, it can be seen that
measured surface temperatures were in the range from
- 20 OC to + 50 OC ; the range of the surface temperature
spanned 70 OC. This figure also provides the percentage
of each measured surface temperature.
S ) are selected according to the Gennan Asphalt Pave­
4
ment Guideline (RStO 01); these are illustrated in fig­
ure 2[1 2J. All four of these structures have different total
thickness, pavement structure composition, thickness of
asphalt layers, and frost-resistant layers. Further, the
base layers in pavement structure Sl are fully composed

J. Highway Transp. Res. Dev. (English Ed.), 2013, 7(3): 1-6

 4 Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development

of an asphalt mixture; the base layers in pavement struc­ combination, which is composed of 70 temperature inter­

ture 52 and 53 include both an asphalt layer and a vals of 1 't:, is developed. Further, there are other tem­
crushed stone and gravel base layer; and the base layers perature combinations for surface temperatures from - 20

in pavement structure 54 are composed of an asphalt mix­ 't: to + 50 't: , where continuous temperature in the adja­
ture and crushed stone or gravel together. cent temperature intervals is a prerequisite for fonning

the combinations and the size of the temperature interval

Asphalt wearing
4 _layer
Crushedmm is anywhere between 1 't: and 70 't:. In table 5, three
�
8 �Asphalt stone base
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�bU1der
layer m surface temperature combinations, including the SIze,
8
Asphalt ,0 Gravel base
base representative temperature, and temperature frequency
II 0

138,--,--,,..., Frost· ffiI]] Crushed of each temperature interval, are presented. These are
resistan stone or
6�:·ol ,u f'""il&j .' nl-r.td� ,,1 gravel base
==I JV '£-I !.W' Jlc::> layer combinations 1 , 2, and 3 and are composed of70 sur­
80 85
face temperature intervals, 1 4 surface temperature in­

tervals, and 1 surface temperature interval, respec­

Fig.2 Four asphalt pavement structures (unit: cm)
tively.
4. 2 Estimation of fatigue damage
Tab. 5 Combination o f surface temperatures and
5ince the 1960s, Miners law has been widely used
their characteristics
for estimating the accumulative damage due to fatigue in
5urface Representative
the field of pavement engineering[ 13). Therefore, accord­ Amount of (6 - a ) Temperature
temperature temperature
ing to equation (3) , fatigue damage in asphalt pavement [a,b) ( "C ) frequency
combination ( "C )
is estimated under the effect of traffic loading and climat­ a

ic conditions as a combination of m x n, where m denotes Combination I 70 (a + 6)/2

the traffic loading and n represents the number of surface

6
a
temperature intervals.
Combination 2 14 5 ( a +6)/2
6
(3)
-20
Combination 3 70 +15 100%
where, n'j is the existing number of loading cycles for all +50
possible temperature combinations; and N'j is the permis­
The number of intervals in a surface temperature
sible number of loading cycles for all possible tempera­ combination determines the n value in Miners law of ac­
ture combinations.
cumulative fatigue damage. The same temperature fre­
The fatigue damages estimated by using the PaDesTo quency and a different representative temperature for
procedure for the four asphalt pavement structures shown
each temperature interval in a surface temperature combi­
in figure 2 are listed in table 4. Here, the traffic loading nation lead to the difference in the fatigue damage in the
conditions are given, and the measured surface tempera­ asphalt pavement. Under the conditions of combinations
ture data shown in figure 1 are taken into consideration.
1 (n = 70), 2 (n = 14), and 3 (n = 1), the esti­
Tab.4 Estimated fatigue damage for four pavement
mated fatigue damages for four asphalt pavement struc­
structures considering measured temperature data
tures are descri bed in figure 3; the lower limi t a (low
Pavement structures 52 5, 54
temperature) , the medium limit (a + b) 12, and the up­
Fatigue damage (% ) 50.193 37.446 38.441 35.840 per limit b (high temperature) are considered to be the
4.3 Analysis and combination of surface tempera­ representative temperatures for the surface temperature

hIres intervals.

As a result of characterizing the surface tempera­ The estimated fatigue damages vary distinctly for

tures from - 20 't: to + 50 't: by 70 temperature inter­ different representative temperatures of intervals in the

vals of 1 't: as described above, a surface temperature same surface temperature combination. Even if the pave-

J. Highway Transp. Res. Dev. (English Ed.), 2013, 7(3): 1-6

 WEI Lu, et al: Impact of Smface Temperature on Fatigue Damage in Asphalt Pavement 5

100 fatigue damage estimated by adopting a single fixed tem­

• Low limit C MedilUI1 C High limit
80 perature. The selection of the temperature used as the
�
0

::' 60 representative temperature of interval [ - 20, + 50] or as

-

�
� the single fixed temperature to estimate the fatigue dam­
0
40

","",---,--,--J
ilo
20 age makes a significant difference in the estimated re­
iii
'"
0 L..... suIts, which inaccurately simulate the actual working
s, 82 83 84
Pavement struchire conditions for asphalt pavement.
1
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n =
(a) Combination
(2) The number of intervals changes from 1 to
140 • Low limit c MedilUI1 0 High limit n = 14 to n = 70 when the considered combination chan­
120
� ges from 3 to 2 to 1. Moreover, with an Illcrease III the
80 number of intervals, the estimated fatigue damages are
60
infrequently impacted by low, medium, and high temper­
atures as the representative temperatures. Consequently,
when the number of intervals in the surface temperature
Pavement struchire
(b) Combination 2 combinations is considerably small, the different repre­
180 • Low limit c MedilUI1 0 High limit sentative temperatures of the intervals have little impact
,'$., 160
- 140 on the fatigue damage in the asphalt pavement. The con­
� 120
j 100 sideration of a combination having a significant number of
u 80
60 surface temperature intervals makes the estimated fatigue
40 damage more reasonable irrespective of the impact of the
20
o
surface temperature on the pavement structure or the
pavement performance influenced by climatic conditions
(c) Combination 3
and traffic loading over its service life.
Fig.3 Fatigue damage for asphalt pavement for different
(3) In surface temperature combinations, the fa­
surface temperature combinations
tigue damage caused by a high temperature ( or upper
ment structure and the surface temperature data are the
limit) for the representative value of the temperature in­
same, there are obvious differences in the estimated fa­
tervals is larger than that caused by a low temperature
tigue damages for different surface temperature combina­
( lower limit) , which is in good agreement with the fact
tions. The change curves of the estimated fatigue damage
that the stiffness modulus of an asphalt mixture decreases
for pavement structure Sl are described and contrasted 5
with an increase in temperature[14 1 J
under the conditions of combinations 1, 2, and 3.
5 Conclusions
160
140 ->-. Combination 1
� 120 -•. - Combination 2 ( 1) The surface temperature data include both tem­
0

::' 100 -+- Combination 3 peratures and temperature frequencies, when the surface
�
�
80
0 60 temperature causing fatigue damage in asphalt pavement
ilo 40 ..=== :::=:=:::.
iii
'" 20 is taken into consideration.
0 (2) The fatigue damage estimated by adopting sur­
Low limit Medium High limit

Representative temperahire ("C) face temperature combinations composed of a varying

number of temperature intervals is more accurate than
Fig.4 Fatigue damage for pavement structure 81
that estimated by adopting a single fixed temperature; the
considering three surface temperature combinations
former is closer to the actual working conditions of pave­
The following can be observed from figures 3 and 4 : ment structures than the latter.
( 1) Combination 3 is composed of a single surface (3) When the number of temperature intervals III a
temperature interval [ - 20, + 50] , which represents the temperature combination is considerably large, the esti-

J. Highway Transp. Res. Dev. (English Ed.), 2013, 7(3): 1-6

 6 Journal of Highway and Transportation Research and Development

mated fatigue damage in the asphalt pavement is more China Journal of Highway and Transport, 2007, 20 (6):

accurate and is closer to the actual working conditions of 13 -18. (in Chinese)

[7J KAYSER S. Principles for Survey of Climatic Influence

pavement structures. In contrast, when the number of
within the flexible Pavement Design Process [D]. Dres­
temperature intervals is considerably small, the fatigue
den: Dresden University of Technology, 2007.
damage caused by the representative values of the tem­
[8J WEI Lu. Prediction Moclel and Its Application of Tempera­
perature intervals varies obviously.
ture Field for Asphalt Pavement in Germany [J]. Journal
(4) The fatigue damage caused by a high tempera­ of China & Fo,eign Highway, 2011, 31 (6),118-121.
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ture ( or upper limit) of the representative value of the (in Chinese)

temperature intervals is larger than that caused by a low [9J SHEN Jin-an. Pavement Performance of Asphalt and As­

temperature ( lower limit) . phalt Mixtures [ M ]. Beijing: China Communication

Press, 2001. (in Chinese)

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J. Highway Transp. Res. Dev. (English Ed.), 2013, 7(3): 1-6