Mechanistic Design of Silent Asphalt Mixtures

The Netherlands is a densely populated country. As a result environmental issues related to road traffic are taken very serious. This paper discusses the mechanistic design of porous asphalt surface mixtures, PA. The environmental advantages of PA are that it dramatically reduces traffic noise. A disadvantage of PA is that the presence of pores reduces the strength of the mixture which is reflected in the materials vulnerability to ravelling. And, to make matters worse, the open structure makes the material vulnerable to aging which further enhances the ravelling vulnerability. Ravelling has a negative effect on noise emission, implying that the main advantage of PA is gradually lost as the development of ravelling damage progresses throughout the service life of PA. Furthermore ravelling of PA is the main reason for PA maintenance. In this paper a mechanistic mixture design approach for PA surfacings and open graded thin surfacings is discussed. The procedure is based on meso scale material mechanics in which the in-mixture response to wheel loadings is simulated and used for further durability determination. The development of the theory summarised and the paper comes to a conclusion by validation of the procedure on the basis of full-scale ravelling tests. It is concluded that the mechanistic design of silent porous surfacing layers is feasible today and that this may well contribute to the introduction of durable and silent road surfacings on a wider scale.

並列關鍵字

Mechanistic mix design ； Meso scale modelling ； Porous asphalt ； Ravelling

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