| 1. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, et al.
(författare)
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A new test to study the flow of mixtures at early stages of compaction
- 2016
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Ingår i: Materials and Structures. - : Kluwer Academic Publishers. - 1359-5997 .- 1871-6873. ; 49:9, s. 3547-3558
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Workability is one of the most commonly used indicators for the capability of asphalt mixtures tobe placed and compacted on the roads with long lasting quality and minimum maintenancethroughout its service life. Despite of valuable previous efforts for measuring and characterizingworkability, none of them has proven successful in representing the field conditions of roadconstructions. This paper is an attempt towards developing a systematic workability test methodfocusing on compaction, the so-called Compaction Flow Test (CFT), by simulating fieldcompaction at early stages and at laboratory scale with the main focus on mixture flow. The CFTwas applied for different mixtures in order to identify the parameters with highest impact on theasphalt particle movements under compaction forces. A new setting inside X-ray ComputationalTomography (CT) allowed tracing asphalt particles during the CFT and acquiring CT imagesunderlining the reliability of the CFT results. In addition, simple Discrete Element Models (DEM)were successfully generated to justify some of the CFT results.
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| 2. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-
(författare)
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Flow behavior of asphalt mixtures under compaction
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Asphalt compaction is one of the most important phases of road construction, being the decisive phase when the structure of the asphalt pavement layer is formed. In spite of its importance, the knowledge about this construction phase is still based on empirical and technological background and therefore surprisingly limited. This lack of knowledge is also due to the fact that the existing laboratory scale compaction devices for mix design are not fully capable of simulating the field compaction. The simulation of asphalt compaction in the laboratory is normally focused on the vertical rearrangements of asphalt particles whereas the flow behavior of these particles in other directions is mostly neglected. However, existing literature suggests that the neglected flow is one of the most important factors for the quality of the road construction, particularly in special cases such as asphalt joints. Therefore, building up a better understanding of the flow behavior of asphalt mixtures subjected to compaction loads is needed for improving the quality of the pavements.In this study, a new test setup, the so called Compaction Flow Test (CFT), was developed to simulate the flow behavior of asphalt mixtures at early stages of compaction. In the first step, feasibility tests were performed, substituting asphalt mixtures by model materials with simple geometries and less complex properties. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) was utilized for capturing 2D radiography images of the flow patterns in the model material during the test. Results of the CFT showed the capability of the new test setup to clearly distinguish between model mixtures with different characteristics. Hence, in the next step, the CFT was applied to real asphalt mixtures and the obtained results were found to support the findings of the feasibility tests with the model materials.The results from the feasibility tests encouraged examining the possible use of an ultrasonic sensor as alternative to the complex and costly X-ray imaging for flow measurements during the CFT. Hence, the CFT was used along with a distance measuring ultrasonic sensor for testing asphalt mixtures with different characteristics. The test results confirmed that an ultrasonic sensor could be effective for capturing the differences of the flow behavior of asphalt mixtures tested by the CFT. In addition, a parametric study with the X-ray setup was carried out to examine the capability of the CFT in reflecting the possible changes of the flow behavior in asphalt mixtures due to the change of construction parameters such as lift thickness, bottom roughness and compaction modes. The results obtained also confirmed the capability of the CFT in showing the possible differences in the flow behavior of the mixtures under the chosen conditions.The encouraging results suggested that the CFT may have potential to become a simple but effective tool for assessing compactability of the mixtures on-site, right after production in an asphalt plant or before placing the mixture on the road. Hence, discrete element method (DEM) was utilized to understand both the influence of selected boundaries of the CFT and the effect of its design on the results.As one specific example of application, an investigation was carried out using the CFT to find the most suitable tracking method for flow measurements in the field. Based on the literature review and feasibility tests, a tracking method with the highest potential for conducting flow measurements during field compaction was introduced. X-ray radiography confirmed the validity of the results obtained with the suggested method.The overall results obtained from this study suggest that the recommended CFT along with the suggested field tracking method may be helpful in building up a comprehensive basis of knowledge on the flow and compaction behavior of asphalt mixtures thus helping to close the gap between the field and laboratory.
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| 3. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Fracture testing for the evaluation of asphalt pavement joints
- 2013
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Ingår i: International Journal on Road Materials and Pavement Design. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1468-0629 .- 2164-7402. ; 14:4, s. 764-791
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Asphalt joints are inevitable parts of every pavement. Although much attention is dedicated to the construction of such joints, reliable tools for assessing the mechanical properties of joints for design and performance assessment are still scarce. This is particularly true for cold joints when attaching a new hot pavement to a cold existing pavement as in the case of large patches for pavement repair. This paper intends to evaluate different new or modified static fracture testing methods for ranking existing joint construction techniques. Some of these testing methods, such as indirect tensile test, direct tensile test and 4-point bending test are familiar in the field of asphalt pavement characterisation, but have scarcely been used for assessing the quality of joints so far. These three test types were adopted and evaluated for joints and the test results were analysed with finite element (FE) software ABAQUS. Different joints for testing were prepared in the laboratory using a special specimen construction procedure. The results suggest that joints with inclined interfaces seem to show more promising behaviour than vertical joints. It was confirmed that starting compaction from the hot side of the joint generally produces better results than compaction starting from the cold side of the joint. Pre-heating of the joint surface and using a bond sealant appears to provide the best results.
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| 4. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of layer thickness on the flow of asphalt under simulated compaction
- 2018
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Ingår i: Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields, BCRRA 2017. - : CRC Press/Balkema. - 9781138295957 ; , s. 1435-1441
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Compaction is one of the most important phases in the life cycle of asphalt pavements and has therefore been a hot subject of research for a long time. However, despite of valuable research efforts on this topic, a remarkable gap between laboratory and field measurements still remains. Moreover, whereas most of the experimental methods are carried out on compacted pavement material, methods for evaluating compactability of asphalt mixtures for increasing the fundamental knowledge about internal movements within the asphalt during compaction are only scarce. Hence, in this study, a recently developed tool for simulating the compaction process with respect to the particle flow, i.e. Compaction Flow Test (CFT), was used along with simultaneous X-ray imaging for investigating the impact of thickness changes on two different asphalt mixture structures in terms of the compaction effort as well as flow pattern differences. The results of the investigation provided reasonably useful input for building up a better understanding of the behavior of mixtures under compaction loads. This method was able to successfully reveal the differences of the structural rearrangements within the asphalt mixtures for three different lift thicknesses. It also helped to explain some of the previous research studies results in a more comprehensive way. The achievements of this study may serve for developing an in-site evaluating test method for assessing compactability of asphalt mixtures before placing them on the roads.
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| 5. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Introducing a new method for studying the field compaction
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal on Road Materials and Pavement Design. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1468-0629 .- 2164-7402. ; 18, s. 26-38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The flow of particles during compaction may have a prominent influence on the difference of field and laboratory results as recently demonstrated by the authors with their newly developed compaction flow test (CFT). This test with a simple compaction simulator was used for studying the flow behaviour and rearrangement of particles for mixtures with different structures and thicknesses. However, validating the CFT results for practical purposes requires field measurements that provide more insight into the compaction process and eventually allowing to adjust the CFT for further use as an evaluating in-site tool. This study presents a new method for conducting such measurements during field compaction. In this method, some representative particles are tracked inside asphalt specimens and the accuracy of the results is examined by X-ray computed tomography. The results of the feasibility tests show that this method has potential for further use in the field and for building up a comprehensive basis of knowledge on field compaction towards closing the gap between the field and laboratory results.
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| 6. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-
(författare)
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Investigation of asphalt compaction in vision of improving asphalt pavements
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Asphalt joints are potentially weakest parts of every pavement. Despite of their importance, reliable tools for measuring their mechanical properties for design and performance assessments are still scarce. This is particularly true for cold joints when attaching a new hot pavement to a cold existing one as in case of large patches for pavement repair. In this study, three static fracture testing methods, i.e. indirect tensile test (IDT), direct tension test (DTT) and 4 point bending (4PB), were adapted and used for evaluating different laboratory made joints. The results suggested that joints with inclined interfaces and also the ones with combined interface treatments (preheated and sealed) seemed to show more promising behaviors than the vertical and untreated joints. It was also confirmed that compacting from the hot side towards the joint improved the joint properties due to imposing a different flow pattern as compared to the frequent compaction methods. The latter finding highlighted the importance of asphalt particle rearrangements and flow during the compaction phase as a very little known subject in asphalt industry. Studies on compaction are of special practical importance since they may also contribute to reducing the possibility of over-compaction and aggregate crushing.Therefore, in this study, a new test method, i.e. Flow Test (FT), was developed to simulate the material flow during compaction. Initially, asphalt materials were substituted by geometrically simple model materials to lower the level of complexity for checking the feasibility of the test method as well as modeling purposes. X-ray radiography images were also used for capturing the flow patterns during the test. Results of the FT on model materials showed the capability of the test method to clearly distinguish between specimens with different characteristics. In addition, a simple discrete element model was applied for a better understanding of the test results as a basis for further improvements when studying real mixtures. Then, real mixtures were prepared and tested under the same FT configuration and the results were found to support the findings from the feasibility tests. The test method also showed its potential for capturing flow pattern differences among different mixtures even without using the X-ray. Therefore, the FT was improved as an attempt towards developing a systematic workability test method focusing on the flow of particles at early stages of compaction and was called the Compaction Flow Test (CFT).The CFT was used for testing mixtures with different characteristics to identify the parameters with highest impact on the asphalt particle movements under compaction forces. X-ray investigations during the CFT underlined the reliability of the CFT results. In addition, simple discrete element models were successfully generated to justify some of the CFT results.
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| 7. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Investigation of asphalt joint compaction using discrete element simulation
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal on Road Materials and Pavement Design. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1468-0629 .- 2164-7402.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Constructing high quality asphalt joints plays a vital role in preventing premature failures of pavements. Previous studies suggested that many construction parameters directly and indirectly influence the quality of asphalt joints. Due to uncertainties about the influence of each parameter on the quality of the finalised joints, closer and more detailed studies are still needed for achieving further improvements in this field. This study investigates the possible impacts of thickness, bottom layer roughness, joint interface geometries and compaction techniques on the particle flow of a coarse structured mixture during compaction. Therefore, discrete element method (DEM) was utilised to evaluate the influence of each construction parameter on the interlock between the cold and the hot side of an asphalt pavement joint. The results helped to explain earlier experimental findings about the joints and revealed potential for further laboratory and field investigations.
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| 8. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-
(författare)
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Modelling the flow behavior of asphalt under simulated compaction using discrete element
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Ingår i: Materials and Design.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The flow differences between the particles of asphalt mixtures compacted in the laboratory and in the field have been identified as one of the reasons for the discrepancies between laboratory and field results. In previous studies, the authors developed a simplified test method, the so-called compaction flow test (CFT), for roughly simulating the flow of particles in asphalt mixtures under compacting loads under laboratory conditions. The CFT was used in different studies to examine its capability of revealing the differences between the flow behavior of different asphalt mixtures under different loading modes. The promising results encouraged further development of the CFT by investigating the impact of simplifications and boundary conditions on the results of the test. For this reason, discrete element method (DEM) was utilized and the possible impacts of the mold size as well as the shape of the loading strip on the results of the CFT were simulated for a mixture with extreme idealized aggregate structure. The results indicate that in case of wearing course layers with a single size gradation of 11mm spheres, the length of the CFT mold can be increased from 150mm to 200-250mm for reducing disturbances from walls of the mold. However, since the majority of the flow is expected to take place within the first 100-150mm length of the mold, reasonable results are obtained even without changing the size of the CFT mold. Moreover, comparing results with different loading strip geometries and loading rates indicates that the current CFT setup still appears to provide consistent results.
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| 9. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Modelling the flow of asphalt under simulated compaction using discrete element
- 2019
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Ingår i: Construction and Building Materials. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0950-0618 .- 1879-0526. ; 227
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The flow differences between the particles of asphalt mixtures compacted in the laboratory and in the field have been identified as one of the reasons for the discrepancies between laboratory and field results. In previous studies, the authors developed a simplified test method, the so-called compaction flow test (CFT), for roughly simulating the flow of particles in asphalt mixtures under compacting loads in laboratory. The CFT was used in different studies to examine its capability of revealing the differences between the flow behavior of different asphalt mixtures under various loading modes. The promising results encouraged further development of the CFT by investigating the possible impacts of simplifications and boundary conditions on the results of this test. For this reason, discrete element method (DEM) was utilized to investigate possible impacts of the mold size, geometry of the loading strip as well as the loading rate on the results of the CFT. The results of the simulation indicate that in case of wearing course layers with nominal maximum aggregate size of 11 mm, the length of the CFT mold can be increased from 150 mm to 200–250 mm for reducing flow disturbances from the mold walls. However, since the majority of the flow of asphalt mixture particles is expected to take place within the first 100–150 mm length of the mold, reasonable results can still be obtained even without changing the size of the CFT mold. Moreover, comparing results with different loading strip geometries and loading rates indicates that the current CFT setup still appears to provide consistent results.
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| 10. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, et al.
(författare)
-
Particle Flow during Compaction of Asphalt Model Materials
- 2015
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Ingår i: Construction and Building Materials. - : Elsevier. - 0950-0618 .- 1879-0526. ; 100:15, s. 273-284
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Compaction is one of the key phases of the pavement construction and has been subject of research for a long time. However, very little is known regarding what really happens during compaction and how the pavement structure and the aggregate skeleton of the asphaltic layer are formed. Studies on that matter are of special practical importance since they may contribute to reduce the possibility of over-compaction and aggregate crushing. In this study, a new test method (Flow Test) was developed to simulate the material flow during compaction. Initially, asphalt materials were substituted by model materials to lower the level of complexity for checking the feasibility of the new test method as well as modeling purposes. Geometrically simple materials with densest possible combinations were tested for both dry and coated mixtures. X-ray radiography images were used for evaluating the material flow during compaction for different model mixtures. Results showed the capability of the test method to clearly distinguish mixtures with different properties from one another and also the potential of such a method to be used as an evaluating tool in the field. In addition, a simple discrete element model was applied for better understanding the flow of the model material during compaction as a basis for further improvement when moving from the asphalt model material to real mixtures. Therefore, real mixtures were prepared and tested under the same test configuration as for the model materials. The overall results of the real mixtures were found to support the model material test results.
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| 11. |
- Ghafoori Roozbahany, Ehsan, 1982-
(författare)
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Utredning av byggandets inverkan på speciella beläggningsfogar : Beläggningsfog mellan asfalt och betong
- 2024
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- En viktig detalj vid vägbyggen är att säkerställa en ordentlig vidhäftning hos beläggningsfogar mellan olika material för att förhindra uppkomsten av tidiga skador på beläggningarna. Riskerna för skador ökar när ett asfaltlager läggs bredvid ett lager med betydligt styvare och jämnare material så som betong. Exempel på dessa fogar kan ses vid busshållplatser, brodäck, spårvagnsplattor etc. En del praktiska försök att bygga sådana fogar med högre kvalitet än brukligt har gjorts men det finns fortfarande ett behov av en vetenskaplig och standardiserad metod för att testa fogar. Detta projekt syftar till att ge ett vetenskapligt underlag om möjliga effekter av olika byggmetoder på kvaliteten på beläggningsfogar mellan angränsande asfalt- och betongskikt. Projektet genomfördes dels med modelleringar och dels i en experimentell del. Modelleringsdelen gjorde det möjligt att undersöka möjliga effekter av olika konstruktionsparametrar på skjuvkapaciteten hos beläggningsfogar. I laboratoriedelen produceras betong-vs-asfaltfogar och utvärderades med hjälp av nyutvecklade mekaniska tester för att karaktärisera deras skjuv- och direkta draghållfastheter. Metodiken och de erhållna resultaten från detta projekt kan användas som underlag för att bygga högkvalitativa beläggningsfogar mellan betong- och asfaltbeläggningar i framtiden.
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