A material testing methodology for in situ quality control of low temperature performance in asphalt pavements

A material testing protocol using asphalt mixture beams in the bending beam rheometer (BBR) is presented in the paper to provide a methodology that can be used by highway agencies in day-to-day quality control and mix design. The objectives of the study are to (1) present an experiment plan that describes the processes of asphalt mixture specimen production and material testing procedures using the BBR instrument and (2) provide future research work with a starting point to develop a specification for using asphalt mixture beams in the BBR to evaluate the low temperature performance of asphalt materials. Several factors that influence the accuracy of a BBR test are taken into consideration. Air void consistency between compacted samples and asphalt mixture beams is evaluated. Statistical approaches are used to determine the number of replicates for a BBR test to be valid. An asphalt pavement construction project in Salt Lake City, Utah, is used to demonstrate the applicability of using asphalt mixture beams in the BBR for in situ quality control of asphalt pavements. Based on testing results, there was an anomaly on three paving days that indicates an irregularity on asphalt materials placed in the field. The paper concludes that the material testing methodology using asphalt mixture beams in the BBR is capable of evaluating low temperature performance of asphalt mixtures. The material testing methodology can quickly settle any dispute and can be adopted by highway agencies to perform in situ quality control of low temperature performance in asphalt pavements.