Effect of freeze-thaw cycles on fatigue cracking and rutting of asphalt pavements

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of Freeze-Thaw (F-T) cycles on fatigue cracking and rutting of asphalt pavements using numerical analysis and lab experiments. The effect of F-T cycles on the performance of asphalt pavements has not been well studied in support of understanding of fatigue and rutting resistance. In association with local governments and consulting firms, an asphalt overlay project was constructed at Northern Arizona University (NAU) located in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Two types of asphalt mixtures were used for this study: rubberized asphalt mixtures and fiber reinforced asphalt mixtures. All mixtures were reheated and compacted to specimens in the Construction Materials lab of NAU. A series of creep compliance tests using a Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) were performed. KENPAVE, a computer software for pavement analysis, was used to analyze critical tensile stresses of the asphalt layer based on different overlaid thickness. Based on test findings and analysis results, the paper concluded that F-T cycles lead to early deterioration of asphalt pavement due to fatigue cracking and rutting.