The objective of the paper is to analyze the causes of failure of bituminous pavements laid in different periods in the state of Tamilnadu with an emphasis on the effect of air voids criteria in the compacted paving mix. Earlier studies show that the air void content below 3 percent greatly increases the probability of premature rutting and in-place unit weight, resulting in low air voids and hence premature rutting. If the air voids in the compacted paving mix is less than 3 percent, the failures like rut, shove etc. could occur and if more than 5 percent, the failures like brittleness, premature cracking, ravelling and stripping could occur. Five stretches of National Highways having been laid, in different periods of time, having different traffic conditions were taken up for the field experiments. Undisturbed core samples were collected and tested in the laboratory for density-void analysis. The paper brings out the results of the experiments and validates the applicability of air voids criteria adopted in the Marshall method of bituminous mix design for tropical regions and draw conclusions. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E208431.
Abstract