Engineering Commons^™

A Cracking Methodology To Assess Fracture And Fatigue Properties Of Asphalt Concrete Mixtures Using Overlay Tester, Victor M. Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Several highway agencies have either implemented or considered implementing performance tests to predict the cracking potential of asphalt concrete (AC) mixtures in the laboratory setting. One such test, the Overlay Tester (OT) test, measures the number of cycles to failure of the AC specimens by simulating the opening and closing of the cracks induced by daily temperature variations and high tensile strain generated by the traffic load. The variability of the OT test results is expressed as a major concern in reliably characterizing the cracking potential of the AC mixes.

The performance of the OT test, in general, and current …

Numerical Simulation Of The Overlay Tester, Andrea Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Overlay Tester (OT) is a relatively new testing procedure that characterizes the cracking resistance of hot mix asphalt (HMA) by evaluating the number of cycles to failure of an HMA specimen. The lack of repeatability and high variability of the results have been a concern to transportation agencies. A careful experimental review of the OT test protocol reveals the complex stress and strain distributions that should be understood in order to improve the certainty associated with the test.

The objective of this Thesis is to present the numerical modeling of the OT test through finite element analysis (FEA). When …

Alternative Fatigue Cracking Resistance Assessment Criteria Of Asphalt Mixtures With Overlay Tester, Alejandro Miramontes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The accumulation of damage due to cracking of hot mix asphalt (HMA) layers under repeated loading along with the climatic effects is known as fatigue cracking. The Overlay Tester (OT) has been implemented or considered by several highway agencies as an index to evaluate the cracking susceptibility and resistance to cracking of asphalt mixtures in the laboratory. The performance indicator used to measure the quality of the HMA mixes is the number of cycles that a specimen may resist during the test until the crack appears and fully propagates to the top of the specimen. The repeatability of the number …