The healing phenomenon of asphalt mixtures has been postulated mainly dueto the effect of asphalt binder. A study of binder's healing alone without considering the interaction of aggregates can simplify the problem at the same time provide a clearer picture of the healing behavior of asphalt binder, and finally to be compared with the mixture's healing study for improvement of current pavement design methodology. This study conducted an analysis of binder's fatigue and healing using laboratory Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) testing and a specifically designed intermittent loading sequence. Based on fundamental dissipated energy concept, the ratio of dissipated energy change (RDEC) approach which has been successfully applied in the mixtures fatigue and healing study is adopted for the binder. As results, the study presented the effect of asphalt healing on fatigue performance in both qualitative and quantitative ways. It proved the strong correlation between healing of asphalt binder and the healing phenomenon observedin the HMA mixtures. A healing rate is proposed to evaluate the healing potential of binders and used to investigate the effect of binder type, stress/strain level, and temperatures on healing. This study also once more validated the applicability and advantages of using the fundamental dissipated energy concept in describing asphalt binder's fatigue and healing. Theresearch finding will help to design and select asphalt binders with higher healing potential, higher damage resistance and longer service life.
Samenvatting