Prediction of longitudinal cracking of asphalt pavements

Abstract

Longitudinal cracking is one of the major structural distresses of asphalt pavement. These cracks appear on the pavement along the direction of moving traffic. This study makes an attempt to predict the extent of longitudinal cracking based on three parameters which are: asphalt binder content, traffic load repetitions and asphalt stiffness modulus. For the study, the data has been used from Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database. Linear Least Square (LLS) regression method is employed to model the observed trends between the longitudinal cracking and the three parameters. The results of the analyses has shown that longitudinal cracking vary linearly with respect to each parameter. It is observed that (i) longitudinal cracking decreases linearly with increase in percentage asphalt binder content in asphalt concrete (ii) longitudinal cracking increases linearly with increasing traffic load repetitions and (iii) longitudinal cracking decreases linearly with increase in stiffness modulus of asphalt concrete.