Investigation of temperature-dependent stiffness variation of a layer of asphalt and their possible effect on the deformation behaviour of concrete structures

Abstract

In the time of increasing maintenance costs, the continuous inspection and the earliest possible damage detection become more and more important. In order to minimize future maintenance costs, the exact evaluation of the condition of the structure and the exact assessment of potential damages are of essential importance. Therefore the University of Luxembourg carries out projects to investigate an efficient application of different assessment methods taking into account praxis relevant test conditions. As a part of this project especially the changing temperatures which influence the stiffness of the materials are analysed. As a consequence, for the condition assessment of structures, the asphalt layer cannot only be taken into consideration as a mass applied as load on the structure. Due to bond effects of the asphalt layer to the load carrying element its changing stiffness induced by changing temperatures influences the stiffness of the whole structure. Within this paper this effect will be illustrated. First the load carrying behaviour and the stiffness of pre-stressed concrete slabs realized with and without an additional asphalt layer will be investigated in a climate chamber and the results will be compared for different temperatures.