Cyclic testing setups to highlight the importance of heating and other reversible phenomena on asphalt mixtures

• Published in: International journal of fatigue Vol. 134; pp. 105514 - 10
• Main Authors: Botella, Ramon, Pérez-Jiménez, Félix E., López-Montero, Teresa, Miró, Rodrigo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Asphalt; Asphalt mixes; Bituminous mixtures; Cyclic testing; Fatigue; Fatigue failure; Fatigue tests; Heating; Materials fatigue; Mechanical properties; Stiffness; Thermal cycling; Thermomechanical properties; Thixotropy; Thixotropy; Fatigue; Asphalt; Bituminous mixtures; Heating
• ISSN: 0142-1123; 1879-3452
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2020.105514

•Reversible phenomena are very important ton cyclic testing of asphalt materials.•Heating has been prove to be the main cause of stiffness reduction on binders.•Heating in mixture may have an important role.•The importance of reversible phenomena on mixtures was highlighted and quantified.•A maximum strain level exists below which mixture can recover all of its initial properties. This paper highlights the importance of the reversible phenomena in cyclic testing of asphalt mixtures. Several tests were designed to quantify the importance of these phenomena, focusing especially on heating due to viscous dissipation during cycling. Results showed that the decrease in stiffness observed during high frequency cyclic testing, and normally assumed by the conventional fatigue characterization procedures as damage, is in fact caused by reversible phenomena that are characteristic of visco-elasto-plastic materials under these conditions (heating, thixotropy, nonlinearity and healing). By obtaining the thermo-mechanical properties of the study mixture, the importance of heating within all reversible phenomena was studied.