Indirect Tensile Testing for Balanced Mixture Design and Quality Control Performance Testing

摘要

The paper proposes the use of the Indirect Tensile Test (IDT) configuration to provide rutting and fatigue cracking tests that can be utilized for Balanced Mixture Design, as well as be incorporated at asphalt plants for use during quality control work. The major benefits of the IDT test methods are the quick specimen preparation and testing time, as well as the minimum financial investment in testing/g and conditioning equipment, without sacrificing correlations to rutting and fatigue cracking performance of asphalt mixtures. A round robin study presented in the paper illustrates the relatively good repeatability of the IDT tests using asphalt plant quality control laboratories as the participants. Tentative performance criteria are presented for New Jersey conditions with preliminary data from plant production showing the viability of including the performance tests during traditional quality control testing.