Evaluation of Highway Materials and Design Performance

Abstract

Evaluation Of Highway Materials And Design Performance report presents a review of the availability of advanced construction materials that show promise for routine pavement construction and rehabilitation on the Federal-Aid Highway System. The Federal-Aid Highway System includes over 200,000 mi (321,868 km) of interstate and primary highway system in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

The highway pavements on this system consist of asphalt pavements (also referred to as asphalt concrete [AC] or flexible pavement) and concrete pavements (also referred to as portland cement concrete [PCC] or rigid pavements). The pavement type denotes the material used for the surface layer, the wearing course of the pavement.

Conclusion

This paper evaluates a mechanistic-empirical permanent strain model for asphalt concrete mixtures. The evaluation was carried out based on two different types of tests: an extra-large wheel-tracking (ELWT) test and a full-scale accelerated pavement test using a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS). Asphalt slabs from three different types of asphalt mixtures were prepared for the ELWT test and tested at several pavement temperatures and tyre inflation pressures. Lateral wandering was also incorporated.