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- Dinegdae, Yared Hailegiorgis
(författare)
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Reliability-based Design Procedure for Flexible Pavements
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Load induced top-down fatigue cracking has been recognized recently as a major distress phenomenon in asphalt pavements. This failure mode has been observed in many parts of the world, and in some regions, it was found to be more prevalent and a primary cause of pavements failure. The main factors which are identified as potential causes of top down fatigue cracking are primarily linked to age hardening, mixtures fracture resistance and unbound layers stiffness. Mechanistic Empirical analytical models, which are based on hot mix asphalt fracture mechanics (HMA-FM) and that could predict crack initiation time and propagation rate, have been developed and shown their capacity in delivering acceptable predictions. However, in these methods, the effect of age hardening and healing is not properly accounted and moreover, these models do not consider the effect of mixture morphology influence on long term pavement performance. Another drawback of these models is, as analysis tools they are not suitable to be used for pavement design purpose. The main objective of this study is to develop a reliability calibrated design framework in load resistance factor design (LRFD) format which could be implemented to design pavement sections against top down fatigue cracking.For this purpose, asphalt mixture morphology based sub-models were developed and incorporated to HMA-FM to characterize the effect of aging and degradation on fracture resistance and healing potential. These sub-models were developed empirically exploiting the observed relation that exist between mixture morphology and fracture resistance. The developed crack initiation prediction model was calibrated and validated using pavement sections that have high quality laboratory data and observed field performance history. As traffic volume was identified in having a dominant influence on predicted performance, two separate model calibration and validation studies were undertaken based on expected traffic volume. The predictions result for both model calibration and validation was found to be in an excellent agreement with the observed performance in the field.A LRFD based design framework was suggested that could be implemented to optimize pavement sections against top-down fatigue cracking. To achieve this objective, pavement sections with various design target reliabilities and functional requirements were analyzed and studied. A simplified but efficient limit state equation was generated using a central composite design (CCD) based response surface methodology, and FORM based reliability analysis was implemented to compute reliabilities and formulate associated partial safety factors. A design example using the new partial safety factors have clearly illustrated the potential of the new method, which could be used to supplement existing design procedures.
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| 2. |
- Onifade, Ibrahim, 1983-
(författare)
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Development of a Morphology-based Analysis Framework for Asphalt Pavements
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The morphology of asphalt mixtures plays a vital role in their properties and behaviour. The work in this thesis is aimed at developing a fundamental understanding of the effect of the asphalt morphology on the strength properties and deformation mechanisms for development of morphology-based analysis framework for long-term response prediction. Experimental and computational methods are used to establish the relationship between the mixture morphology and response. Micromechanical modeling is employed to understand the complex interplay between the asphalt mixture constituents resulting in strain localization and stress concentrations which are precursors to damage initiation and accumulation. Based on data from actual asphalt field cores, morphology-based material models which considers the influence of the morphology on the long-term material properties with respect to damage resistance, healing and ageing are developed. The morphology-based material models are implemented in a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) fracture mechanics framework for pavement performance prediction. The framework is able to predict top-down cracking initiation to a reasonable extent considering the variability of the input parameters. A thermodynamic based model for damage and fracture is proposed. The results from the study show that the morphology is an important factor which should be taken into consideration for determining the short- and long-term response of asphalt mixtures. Further understanding of the influence of the morphology will lead to the development of fundamental analytical techniques in design to establish the material properties and response to loads. This will reduce the empiricism associated with pavement design, reduce need for extensive calibration and validation, increase the prediction capability of pavement design tools, and advance pavement design to a new level science and engineering.
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| 3. |
- Bekele, Abiy
(författare)
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Evaluation of Low Temperature Damage in Asphalt Mixtures with Non-Contact Resonance Testing
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Thetemperature induceddamage in asphalt mixtureshas always been a major distress that requires a substantialconsiderationin the asphalt industry. One of the most important aspects of studying temperature induceddamage is developing a practical test method for evaluation of the material’s resistanceto it. Hence, there is a growing interest in developing testing methodologieswhich are more efficient, less expensive and simpler to perform than the conventional test methods. Impact resonance testing is a well-documented non-destructive testing method,and ithas been successfully appliedon asphalt mixturesto measure their elastic and viscoelastic properties. This research aims at extending the impact resonance testing methodology to characterization of temperature induced damage in asphalt mixtures and to investigate experimentally and numerically damage induced in asphalt mixtures due to thermomechanical mismatch between the masticand aggregate phases.In order to improve temperature control and thus accuracy of the resonance testing, an automated non-contact test procedure is developedwith a loudspeakerutilized as a source of excitation.The developed methodology has been evaluatedfor a range of asphalt concrete materialsand temperatures. The measurementsobtained from the new method have been verified by taking similar resonance frequency measurements usinganinstrumented impact hammer. Results from this work show that repeatable fundamental resonance frequency measurements can be performed onadisc shaped specimen in an automated manner without the need to open thethermal chamberthat is used to condition test specimens.Investigationsofmicro-damage in asphalt concrete due to differential thermal contraction during cooling cycles havebeen carried out experimentally by using the developedautomated non-contact resonance testingcombined withcyclic cooling. The results of the experimental work haveshown the initiation of low temperature micro-damage and a hysteretic behavior of stiffness modulus during thethermal cycles. Energy based micro-mechanical model is also utilized in order to characterize themicro-crackinitiation and growthin asphalt concrete due to cyclic low temperature variations.Results of this approach have indicated the initiation of micro-cracksat low temperatures as well as the decrease in their length with increase in temperature. In order to obtain a quantitative insight into the temperature induced damage formation, a micromechanical finite element model (FEM) of asphalt mixtureunder thermal loading is developed. The model is used to investigate the damage evolution during the thermal cycles as well as its effect on material’s stiffness. Four cases ofmastic-aggregate combinations aremodelledin order to investigate effects of aggregate gradation as well as of masticpropertieson the thermal damage evolution. Cohesive Zone Model (CZM) isused to define aggregate-masticinterface so that an initiation of micro-damage due to differential thermal contraction can be probedin terms of its effect on the overall stiffness modulus. It is observed numerically that during the thermal cycles, thermal damage is initiated at the aggregate-mastic interface due to the differential contraction of mastic. It is also shown that the modelling observations are in qualitative agreement with the experimental findings from the resonance testing. Accordingly, the proposed modelling approach is a viable tool for evaluation of theeffect of asphalt mixture design on its resistance to thermally induced damage.
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