TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of synthetic fibres on fracture performance of asphalt mortar
AU - Apostolidis, Panos
AU - Liu, Xueyan
AU - Daniel, Gerald C.
AU - Erkens, S.
AU - Scarpas, Athanasios
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The utilisation of synthetic fibres has been reported in the past showing enhancement of fatigue and thermal cracking resistance in asphaltic materials. However, the limited evidences about the benefits of these fibres in asphaltic materials at low material scales have been noticed. Also, the exact reinforcing mechanism of binding system in the asphalt pavement mixes is still unclear. Therefore, this research examined experimentally the fracture performance of the synthetic reinforced asphalt mixes at the mortar level by using specially designed tools. Samples of three different fibre contents and two fibre lengths were evaluated. Pull-out tests, whose objective was to explore the potential interaction of fibre-matrix, demonstrated a matrix-type of fracture. Moreover, direct tension tests were carried out with both monotonic and cyclic loading to assess the effect of the synthetic fibres on tensile strength, fracture energy and ductility; and fatigue life of reinforced mixes. Improvements on mechanical characteristics of asphalt mortars have been observed when fibres were added. Also, the longer fibres of low dosages generated equivalent performance to the mix with the high dosages of shorter fibre. Hence, a potential initial cost reduction could be reached by means of utilising the longer synthetic fibres. Overall, the current results elucidated that implementing dedicated studies at various material levels can assist on understanding the material performance and on tailoring systems beyond sometimes the supplier-recommended additive dosages.
AB - The utilisation of synthetic fibres has been reported in the past showing enhancement of fatigue and thermal cracking resistance in asphaltic materials. However, the limited evidences about the benefits of these fibres in asphaltic materials at low material scales have been noticed. Also, the exact reinforcing mechanism of binding system in the asphalt pavement mixes is still unclear. Therefore, this research examined experimentally the fracture performance of the synthetic reinforced asphalt mixes at the mortar level by using specially designed tools. Samples of three different fibre contents and two fibre lengths were evaluated. Pull-out tests, whose objective was to explore the potential interaction of fibre-matrix, demonstrated a matrix-type of fracture. Moreover, direct tension tests were carried out with both monotonic and cyclic loading to assess the effect of the synthetic fibres on tensile strength, fracture energy and ductility; and fatigue life of reinforced mixes. Improvements on mechanical characteristics of asphalt mortars have been observed when fibres were added. Also, the longer fibres of low dosages generated equivalent performance to the mix with the high dosages of shorter fibre. Hence, a potential initial cost reduction could be reached by means of utilising the longer synthetic fibres. Overall, the current results elucidated that implementing dedicated studies at various material levels can assist on understanding the material performance and on tailoring systems beyond sometimes the supplier-recommended additive dosages.
KW - word
KW - fracture performance
KW - synthetic fibres
KW - asphalt mortar
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061249155&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14680629.2019.1574235
DO - 10.1080/14680629.2019.1574235
M3 - Article
SN - 1468-0629
VL - 21 (2020)
SP - 1918
EP - 1931
JO - Road Materials and Pavement Design
JF - Road Materials and Pavement Design
IS - 7
ER -