PURPOSES : The evaluation of the low-temperature performance of an asphalt mixture is crucial for mitigating transverse thermal cracking and preventing traffic accidents on expressways. Engineers in pavement agencies must identify and verify the pavement sections that require urgent management. In early 2000, the research division of the Korea Expressway Corporation developed a three-dimensional (3D) pavement condition monitoring profiler vehicle (3DPM) and an advanced infographic (AIG) highway pavement management system computer program. Owing to these efforts, the management of the entire expressway network has become more precise, effective, and efficient. However, current 3DPM and AIG technologies focus only on the pavement surface and not on the entire pavement layer. Over the years, along with monitoring, further strengthening and verification of the feasibility of current 3DPM and AIG technologies by performing extensive mechanical tests and data analyses have been recommended. METHODS : First, the pavement section that required urgent care was selected using the 3DPM and AIG approaches. Second, asphalt mixture cores were acquired from the specified section, and a low-temperature fracture test, semi- circular bending (SCB) test, was performed. The mechanical parameters, energy-release rate, and fracture toughness were computed and compared. RESULTS : As expected, the asphalt mixture cores acquired from the specified pavement section ( poor condition – bad section) exhibited negative fracture performances compared to the control section (good section). CONCLUSIONS : The current 3DPM and AIG approaches in KEC can successfully evaluate and analyze selected pavement conditions. However, more extensive experimental studies and mathematical analyses are required to further strengthen and upgrade current pavement analysis approaches.

PURPOSES: Using recyclable materials in asphalt pavement industry is one of the essential tasks not only for saving construction budgets but also for mitigating environmental pollutions. Over the past decades, several efforts have been made by road maintenance agencies to incorporate various recyclable materials into virgin asphalt paving mixtures. As a result, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), which consists of old pavement material was selected as one of most widely used recyclable materials. In this paper, the effects of using different amounts of single-recycled RAP (SRRAP) and double-recycled RAP (DRRAP) on the low-temperature characteristics of asphalt mixtures were investigated. METHODS: To evaluate the low-temperature characteristics of SRRAP and DRRAP mixtures, two experiments, the bending beam mixture creep test and semicircular bending fracture test were performed. The experimental parameters: creep stiffness, m-value, thermal stress, critical cracking temperature, fracture energy, and fracture toughness were computed then compared. RESULTS : RAP mixtures (SRRAP or DRRAP) showed lower mechanical performance compared with conventional asphalt mixtures. The differences became distinct with increased RAP addition. However, the performance differences between SRRAP and DRRAP mixtures were not significant in all cases, which indicate the possible application of re-recycling technology (DRRAP) in the asphalt pavement industry. CONCLUSIONS : The addition of RAP to virgin asphalt can mitigate low-temperature performance despite the improvement in fracture performance observed in some cases. Therefore, using RAP (SRRAP or DRRAP) mixtures on inter or sublayer construction, but not on the surface layer, is recommended. Moreover, the possibility of applying double-recycling technology in asphalt pavement industry can be introduced in this study because not significant performance differences were found between SRRAP and DRRAP mixtures especially at low temperature.

PURPOSES: Using recycled asphalt materials (called Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement: RAP) from existing asphalt pavement layers in newly constructed asphalt pavement is an essential option not only for lowering the construction budget but also for mitigating environmental pollution for society. For this reason, many pavement agencies in South Korea, the USA, and Canada have observed the effect of RAP on conventional asphalt pavement to evaluate and set proper material specifications and addable amounts. In this paper, effect of recyclable material on low-temperature performance of asphalt materials was investigated with two different mechanical tests. Among the recyclable material sources, RAP and Taconite Aggregate (TA), which is mainly produced in northern Minnesota (USA), were considered. METHODS : To evaluate the low-temperature mechanical performance of a RAP mixture, two different experimental tests (In-Direct Tensile (IDT) low temperature creep test and Semi-Circular Bending (SCB) test) were considered. The mechanical parameters creep-stiffness, relaxation modulus, fracture energy, and fracture toughness were computed then compared. RESULTS: More brittle characteristics were observed with RAP-added asphalt mixtures compared to the conventional asphalt mixtures, as expected. However, the differences of computed mechanical performances were not significantly distinct for RAP mixtures compared to conventional mixtures when the RAP proportion was around 20%, and with the addition of TA up to 20%. CONCLUSIONS : It can be concluded that up to 20% of RAP addition (along with TA up to 20%) in a virgin asphalt mixture does not provide significant performance reduction. This addable proportion can be viewed as a successful minimum level when considering the addition of RAP to hot-mix asphalt (HMA). Moreover, applying TA with RAP could offer a successful alternative for asphalt recycling and the materials industry.

PURPOSES : Thermal cracking (also called low-temperature cracking) is a serious stress for asphalt pavement, especially in eastern South Korea, the northern USA, and Canada. Thermal cracking occurs when the level of thermal stress exceeds the corresponding level of low temperature strength of the given asphalt materials. Therefore, computation of thermal stress is a key factor for understanding, quantifying, and evaluating the level of low-temperature cracking resistance of asphalt pavement. In this paper, two different approaches for computing thermal stress on asphalt binder were introduced: Hopkins and Hamming’s algorithm (1967) and the application of a simple power-law function. All the computed results were compared visually; then the findings and recommendations were discussed. METHODS: Thermal stress of the tested asphalt binder was computed based on the methodology introduced in previous literatures related to viscoelastic theory. To perform the numerical analysis, MATLABTM 2D matrix-correlation and Microsoft Excel visual basic code were developed and used for the function fitting and value-minimization processes, respectively. RESULTS : Different results from thermal stress were observed with application of different computation approaches. This variation of the data trends could be recognized not only visually but also statistically. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that these two different computation approaches can successfully provide upper and lower limits (i.e. boundaries) for thermal stress prediction of a given asphalt binder. Based on these findings, more reliable and reasonable thermal stress results could be provided and finally, better pavement performance predictions could also be expected.

The ride quality (i.e. smoothness) is a key factor for evaluating the construction quality of expressway asphalt pavement. Conventionally, three paving devices are widely used to control the surface layer thickness: leveling sensor (i.e. LS), short-range-surfacing-contact-ski (i.e. SSCS) and long-range-surfacing-contact-ski (i.e. LSCS). However, each of these levelling tools presents one major drawback. In the case of LS, if the original sub-layer evenness is poor, the final asphalt pavement surface and its smoothness will be negatively affected. The SSCS cannot assure satisfactory smoothness when relatively long paving section (in the order of 10 km) are paved. While the LSCS would reduce the drawback of the SSCS, its weight on the one hand and its length on the other discourage its use in the paving site especially for curved sections. In this paper, a next generation pavement smoothness leveling equipment, known as non-contact-digital-ski (i.e. NCDS) was implemented, evaluated and compared to the conventional equipment leveling device. The international Roughness Index (IRI m/km) was measured on sections paved with and without NCDS and the results visually and statistically compared. In addition, for the same sections, the modulus of the pavement layers was computed and compared by means of Falling Weight Deflectometer (i.e. FWD). It was observed that when NCDS is used for asphalt pavement overlay of existing concrete pavement, significant improvement in IRI (i.e. IRI<1.0m/km) and consistently uniform elastic modulus could be achieved compared to the conventional levelling and paving method.

Low temperature cracking on asphalt material is one of the serious distresses for asphalt pavement built in northern U.S., Europe and Canada. Thermal stress is a key factor for measuring (and estimating) the resistant capability of asphalt pavement against low temperature cracking. For this reason, many road agencies have recognized thermal stress as a crucial parameter for evaluating the low temperature performance of asphalt pavement materials. Thermal stress is conventionally computed through two steps. First, the relaxation modulus E(t) is generated thorough the conversion of the experimental creep compliance data D(t). Then thermal stress (T℃) is numerically estimated solving convolution integral. In this paper, a one-step approach to the calculation of thermal stress is proposed. This method is based on Laplace transformation. Thermal stress and corresponding critical cracking temperature obtained with single- and double-step procedure on a set of three mixtures are graphically and statistically compared. It is observed that the application of Laplace transformation provides reliable computation results of thermal stress compared to the conventional computation approach.

Analyzing asphalt mixture images can provide crucial information not only for generating advanced geometry structure in several numerical computations (i.e. FEM and/or DEM) codes, but also for numerically evaluating the material microstructure. It is well known that 3D X-Ray Computer Tomography (CT) can provide accurate and realistic microstructure information of asphalt mixtures; however, this technology still presents two limitations: 1) the equipment is very expensive and, therefore, only few pavement agencies can afford it, and 2) the software required to generate realistic image of asphalt mixture with three-phase structure (aggregate, asphalt binder and air-voids) is based on a global thresholding algorithm which cannot be easily accessed and edited by users and practitioners. In this paper, accurate and realistic 2D three-phase asphalt mixture images were generated using an advanced DIP analysis code (implemented on MATLABTM) and a common flatbed scanner, which can be easily purchased at relatively low price. The threshold algorithm was developed based on the computed results of Gmm (maximum specific gravity), Gmb (bulk specific gravity), VMA (voids in mineral aggregates) of given asphalt mixtures which can be experimentally obtained in a laboratory environment. 2D three-phase images of asphalt mixtures were derived from grey scale images (color intensity from 0 to 255) obtained from original RGB (Red-Green-Blue) scale images with a dual-threshold computation techniques (i.e. one step for computing air voids phase, T1, and a second step for computing asphalt binder (and/or mastic) phase, T2). An example of DIP analysis results is shown in Figure 1. Based on the computation results, quite accurate and good visual agreement was observed between RGB scale image and DIP analyzed image. The findings indicate that this advanced DIP analysis technique can provide reliable geometry and microstructural information for several numerical simulations such as finite element method (FEM) and discrete element modeling (DEM). This research work represents a solid base for performing simple 2D microstructure analysis using 2- and 3-point correlation function and for developing the Moon Cannone Falchetto (MCF) model which will be introduced in the next annual KSRE conference.

The potential of marginal materials as components of road infrastructures has been studied for many years. The list of materials includes non-traditional natural materials (rocks and soils), industrial by-products (from metallurgical industry, thermal electric power stations, and chemical industry) and wastes (mining and quarrying, municipal, industrial and demolition wastes). Among these materials, Electric Arc Furnace Steel Slags (EAFSS) presents physical-mechanical characteristics and full chemical compatibility with the hydrocarbon binders used in road construction and, therefore, have high potential for being re-used. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study conducted to verify the suitability of a particular type of Electric Arc Furnace Steel Slag (EAFSS) to be recycled in the aggregate skeleton of dense graded and porous asphalt mixtures for pavements application. One dense graded mixture for wearin gcourse(WCAC), one Stone Mastic Asphalt(SMA) and one Porous Asphalt(PA) were prepared and compacted for this purpose. The computed results of Marshall Stability, Flow and Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) values are presented in Table 1.

PURPOSES: This research is to evaluate the mechanical performance of different types of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavement cells prepared for MN/Road field testing section through an extensive experimental analysis of air voids and simple statistical evaluation tools (i.e. hypothesis test). METHODS: An extensive experimental work was performed to measure air voids in 82 asphalt mixture cores (238 samples in total) obtained from nine different types of road cell located in MN/Road testing field. In order to numerically and quantitatively address the differences in air voids among the different test Cells built in MN/Road, a simple statistical test method (i.e. t-test) with 5% significance was used. RESULTS: Similar trends in air voids content were found among the mixtures including conventional HMA, Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) combined with taconite aggregate this provides support to the use of RAP and WMA technology in the constructions of asphalt pavement. However, in case of acid modified HMA mixtures, significant differences in air void content were observed between on the wheel path and between wheel path location, which implies negative performances in rutting and thermal cracking resistances. Conclusions : It can be concluded that use of RAP and WMA technology in the construction of conventional asphalt pavement and the use of PPA (Poly Phosphoric Acid) in combinations with SBS (Styrene Butadiene Styrene) in asphalt binder production provide satisfactory performance and, therefore, are highly recommended