Determining and Validating Thermal Strain in Asphalt Concrete

摘要

Thermal strain causes transverse cracks in Asphalt Concrete (AC) pavements. In this study, thermal strain is determined by developing a three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) model and validates the model with measured data using the field installed Horizontal Asphalt Strain Gauge (HASG) in Interstate 40 (1-40) located near the city of Albuquerque in the state of New Mexico. Materials' properties of the pavement section were determined by laboratory testing on field collected cores from the pavement section after the construction. Viscoelastic material properties of AC were determined from the creep test on the field cored samples. Coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and contraction (CTC) of AC were also determined in the laboratory and in the field. Results show that the FEM model can predict thermal strain with maximum variation of 6.0% compared to measured thermal strain in the field, which is very promising.