In the contemporary era, 3D printing technology has become widely utilized across diverse fields, including biomedicine, industrial design, manufacturing, food processing, aerospace, and construction engineering. The inherent advantages of automation, precision, and speed associated with 3D printing have progressively led to its incorporation into road engineering. Asphalt, a temperature-responsive material that softens at high temperatures and solidifies as it cools, presents distinctive challenges and opportunities in this context. For the effective implementation of 3D printing technology in road engineering, 3D printed asphalt (3DPA) must exhibit favorable performance and printability. This requires attributes such as good fluidity, extrudability, and buildability. Furthermore, materials utilizing 3DPA for crack repair should possess high viscosity, elasticity, toughness, superior high-temperature stability, and resistance to low-temperature cracking. These characteristics ultimately contribute to enhancing pavement longevity and ensuring worker safety.

PURPOSES : The aim of this study is to evaluate the stripping resistance of a bead coating via the Hamburg wheel tracking test and image analysis. METHODS : First, the stripping resistance of the bead coating was evaluated via the Hamburg wheel tracking test. A pneumatic wheel with a load of 175±2 N was used to simulate repeated skid cycles. Several bead coating mixtures with different numbers of coating layers, i.e., zero, one, two, three, and four layers, i.e., zero, one, two, three, and four layers,were conducted. Finally, an image analysis program was developed to analyze surface images captured from the Hamburg wheel tracking test. RESULTS : The results show that the samples with more coating layers exhibit higher stripping resistance. After 500 stripping cycles, the percentage of bead loss is 4% to 28%. At 80% bead loss, the mixture with one coating layer presents more skid cycles than the control sample without a coating layer. CONCLUSIONS : Incorporating a coating layer can improve the stripping resistance of glass beads under repeated skid cycles. Additionally, an image analysis program is established in this study to determine the percentage of bead loss caused by the stripping test.