The objective of this research is to develop a procedure calibrated and validated with field data to simulate long-term aging of asphalt mixtures for performance testing and prediction.
This research will provide a basis for future development of a methodology for integrating the effects of long-term aging in Pavement ME Design and other mechanistic design and analysis systems and using the methodology toenable consideration of long-term aging in full-scale and accelerated pavement testing (APT) results.
The research shall be limited to asphalt-aggregate mixture aging procedures because these will inherently take air voids (permeability) and asphalt-aggregate chemical interaction into account.
During the development of this procedure, consideration shall be given to (1) different types of cracking distress which originate towards the top or bottom of the asphalt pavement layers and are impacted by aging and (2) the potential differential aging within an asphalt pavement layer.
