Low-temperature performance and damage constitutive model of eco-friendly basalt fiber-diatomite-modified asphalt mixture under freeze-thaw cycles

Abstract

Asphalt pavement located in seasonal frozen regions usually suffers low-temperature cracking and freeze-thaw damage. For this reason, diatomite and basalt fiber were used to modify asphalt mixtures. An indirect tensile test was used to determine the low-temperature performance of the asphalt mixture. The influences of freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles on strength, tensile failure strain, stiffness modulus, and strain energy density were analyzed. The variation of the stress-strain curve under F-T cycles was analyzed. The stress-strain curve was divided into a linear zone and nonlinear zone. The linear zone stress ratio and linear zone strain ratio were proposed as indexes to evaluate the nonlinear characteristics of the stress-strain curve. The results show that the basalt fiber-diatomite-modified asphalt mixture had better low temperature crack resistance and antifreeze-thaw cycles capacity compared to the control asphalt mixture. The F-T cycles made the nonlinear characteristics of the stress-strain relationship of the asphalt mixture remarkable, and also decreased the linear zone stress ratio and linear zone strain ratio. The damage constitutive model established in this paper can describe the stress-strain relationship after F-T damage well.