Innovative Design Strategies for Asphalt Concrete Highways in the Commonwealth ofPennsylvania

摘要

The purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate how highway design techniques,involving temperature effects on asphalt concrete layer performance can be developed for heavy-duty asphalt concrete pavements. The study is done for the State of Pennsylvania. Design methods utilizing design asphalt content to mitigate fatigue and rutting have been developed. The cumulative damage hypothesis was applied to 24 pavement conditions. The fatigue life of the pavement cross section for each condition was determined such that the cumulative damage ratio was less than unity. Based on a procedure initially developed by Shell researchers and further modified by Monismith, rut depth estimates were obtained for 5 pavement sections. All the sections passed the minimum rutting requirements.