This article describes the pavement testing facilities at the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. The South Central Superpave Center studies way to continue improvements to the performance-based system for designing asphalt pavement, which can withstand more extreme temperatures and the heavier traffic loads anticipated on the nation's highways. The Center for Asphalt and Material Chemistry is four labs that can test properties of asphalt binders, the change in oxygen content of asphalt after aging and compute surface tension and contact angle data for fluid-fluid and fluid-solid systems. Ground-penetrating radar is a non-destructive way to investigate the underground elements of a pavement. Recently it was used to test a section of I-35 after a major water main break under the freeway. The radar discovered a major washout invisible from the surface. The Ride/Rut Facility consists of test sections for measuring surface profile measurements.
Abstract