Microstructural Characteristics of Asphalt Concrete with Different Gradations by X-ray CT

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of asphalt concrete types on the microstructural characteristics at high-temperature. Suspend-dense structure and Skeleton-dense structure were selected to investigate the deformation of pavement at meso-scale. The internal microstructures of typical asphalt concretes, AC, SUP and SMA, were scanned by X-ray CT device, and microstructural changes before and after high-temperature damage were researched by digital image processing. Adaptive threshold segmentation algorithm（ATSA） based on image radius was developed and utilized to obtain the binary images of aggregates, air-voids and asphalt mastic. Then the shape and distribution of air-voids and aggregates were analyzed. The results show that the ATSA can distinguish the target and background effectively. Gradation and coarse aggregate size of asphalt mixtures have an obvious influence on the distribution of air-voids. The movements of aggregate particles are complex and aggregates with elliptic sharp show great rotation. The effect of gradation on microstructure during high-temperature damage promotes the research about the failure mechanism of asphalt concrete pavement.

Quantitative Characterization and Elastic Properties of Interfacial Transition Zone around Coarse Aggregate in Concrete

Backscattered electron images（BSE） obtained by scanning electron microscope was used to quantitatively characterize the microstructure of interfacial transition zone（ITZ） in concrete. Influences of aggregate size（5, 10, 20, and 30 mm）, water to cement ratio（0.23, 0.35 and 0.53） and curing time（from 3d to 90d） on the microstructure of interfacial transition zone between coarse aggregate and bulk cement matrix were investigated. The volume percentage of detectable porosity and unhydrated cement in ITZ was quantitatively analyzed and compared with that in the matrix of various concretes. Nanoindentation technology was applied to obtain the elastic properties of ITZ and matrix, and the elastic modulus of concrete was then calculated based on the Lu ＆ Torquato model and self-consistence scheme by using the ITZ thickness and elastic modulus obtained from this investigation. The experimental results demonstrated that the microstructure and thickness of ITZ in concrete vary with a variety of factors, like aggregate size, water to cement ratio and curing time. The relative low elastic properties of ITZ should be paid attention to, especially for early age concrete.

Meso-mechanical Interfacial Behavior of Elbow Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

The strain distributions near the interface when the elbow steel fiber is pulled out from the half-mould concrete matrix are directly measured using a combined method of single fiber pull-out test and digital image correlation. Meanwhile, the real-time processes of the bonding, debonding and sliding at the interface are observed. The micro-mechanism of the strain localization in the failure process of interface when debonding occurs and the strengthening mechanism at the imbedded fiber are discussed. The experimental results show that the meso-scale strain localization gives rise to the localization of shear damage near the fiber interface. This strain localization characterized by the debonding process near the interface occurs, develops and moves gradually at an apparently regular interval. At the elbow part of the imbedded fiber, the peak value of the shearing stress occurs. But the primary debonding does not occur at this place because the strength of the shear damage is increased at the local area of the elbow part in the concrete, displaying an apparent reinforced effect at the end of the fiber.