Laura Dalton

Date of Graduation

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair

John Zaniewski

Committee Co-Chair

Karl Barth

Committee Member

John Quaranta

Abstract

Reviewing asphalt concrete plant-produced mixes in a laboratory setting provides further insight into pavement characteristics. Nine mix designs provided from five hot mix asphalt plant producers were evaluated throughout this research. Five mixes were Wearing I and four mixes were Base II/19 mm each of which contained various aggregate sources. First, the determination of bulk specific gravity was performed using three methods: Saturated Surface-Dry, CoreLok, and Dimensional (volumetric mass density). Moreover, assessing a mix's inherent capability to be uniformly compacted is integral in both laboratory and field evaluations. The nine mix designs were assessed for uniformity following AASHTO PP 60 standard.;Furthermore, the Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT) is a new performance testing machine that has dynamic modulus, flow number, and fatigue testing capabilities. This research focused on using the AMPT to determine dynamic modulus, fatigue characterization, and flow number values of the asphalt mixes. Master curves were developed using Mastersolver Version 2.2 to review the stiffness of the mixes. Asphalt Pavement Hierarchical Analysis Toolbox -- Fatigue Program (Alpha-FatigueTM software) was utilized to determine fatigue coefficients used to model the traditional fatigue equation. Yang Huang's KENPAVE was used to develop a range of strain-modulus curves. Next, AMPT dynamic modulus values and fatigue K-value outputs were then compared using the KENPAVE strain outputs at a specified frequency level. Lastly, flow number was evaluated for rutting resistance and compared among mix designs using two methods: data smoothing method and the Francken Model.

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