Influence of temperature on the cracking behavior of asphalt base courses with structural weaknesses

Asphalt pavement is known to be deteriorated by the repetitive traffic loading, climatic condition, aging of asphalt mixture etc. after opening to traffic. Crack plays a critical role in pavement deterioration. Several studies have been conducted to obtain a better understanding with respect to climate related pavement fracture behavior. However, the limitation of the previous researches was that most of them were conducted by laboratory experiment or numerical simulation. The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between the continuously changed temperature and the relative crack opening in asphalt base course by analyzing the data collected from an in-service asphalt pavement. To achieve this objective, four artificial transverse cracks were first induced on the asphalt subbase of a test track, and then their temperatures and crack opening were recorded by monitoring systems. Diurnal and annual trends of temperature and relative crack opening as well as their relationship were investigated and discussed. In this study, a test track with defined asphalt layers was constructed, which was specially equipped with sensors that continuously monitored the temperatures and opening widths of structural cracks in the test track. On the basis of the findings obtained, it is possible for the first time to make direct statements about the deformation conditions occurring in an asphalt base layer as a result of temperature. Keywords: Asphalt pavement, Temperature, Relative crack opening, Diurnal trends, Annual trend