Image analysis of aggregate,mastic and air void phases for asphalt mixture

The shape characterization and spatial distribution of aggregate,mastic and air void phases for asphalt mixture were analyzed.Three air void percentage asphalt mixtures,4%,7% and 8%,respectively,were cut into cross sections and polished.X-ray scanning microscope was used to capture aggregate,mastic,air void phase by the image.The average of polygon diameter was chosen as a threshold to determine which aggregates would be retained on a given sieve.The aggregate morphological image from scanned image was utilized by digital image processing method to calculate the gradation of aggregate and simulate the real gradation.Analysis result shows that the air void of asphalt mixture has influence on the correlation between calculation gradation and actual gradation.When comparing 4.75 mm sieve size of 4%,7% and 8% air void asphalt mixtures,7% air void asphalt mixture has 55% higher than actual size gradation,8% air void asphalt mixture has 8% higher than actual size gradation,and 4% air void asphalt mixture has 3.71% lower than actual size gradation.4% air void asphalt mixture has the best correlation between calculation gradation and actual gradation comparing to other specimens.The air void percentage of asphalt mixture has no obvious influence on the air void orientation,and three asphalt mixtures show the similar air orientation along the same direction.

Dynamic response of concrete pavement structure with asphalt isolating layer under moving loads

A three-dimensional finite element model （3D FEM） is built using ABAQUS to analyze the dynamic response of a concrete pavement structure with an asphalt isolating layer under moving loads. The 3D model is prepared and validated in the state of no asphalt isolating layer. Stress and deflection at the critical load position are calculated by changing thickness, modulus of isolating layer and the combination between the isolating layer and concrete slab. Analysis result shows that the stress and deflection of the concrete slab increase with the increase of thickness. The stress and deflection of the concrete slab decrease with the increase of combination between the isolating layer and concrete slab. The influence of changing the isolating layer modulus to the stress and deflection of the concrete slab is not significant. From the results, asphalt isolating layer design is suggested in concrete pavement.