Speed and Temperature Effects on Full-Scale Pavement Responses in Non-Conventional Flexible Pavements

The importance of speed and temperature effects on flexible pavement response and performance are well-recognized within mechanistic-empirical pavement design and analysis procedures. While much laboratory testing and some field testing has been conducted to quantify these relationships on traditional mixtures (i.e., Superpave mixes with unmodified or polymer modified asphalt), there has been little investigation until now examining non-conventional materials, particularly in a full-scale test. Nine asphalt concrete (AC) test sections were constructed that included sulfur-modified material, high polymer content, warm-mix asphalt (WMA), high recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) content, Trinidad Lake Asphalt pellets, an open-graded friction course, and a hot-mix asphalt (HMA) control section. The sections were instrumented with an array of strain gauges to measure tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt concrete. An equation was developed that adequately modeled seven of the nine test sections. The similar response characteristics of the seven sections indicate that they could be modeled in a similar fashion. Laboratory dynamic modulus testing should be conducted to further show how the different materials respond to temperature and speed and to explain why two of the sections did not conform to the model.