Sharif Digital Repository

Composite nature of asphalt mixtures necessitates a micromechanical scheme which depends on distinctive characteristics of various constitutive phases. In this regard, discrete element method was utilized to predict the creep behavior of asphalt mixtures and strain response in primary, secondary and tertiary stages. In this research, a modified mixture modeling procedure was considered to better simulate permanent deformation response of asphalt mixtures under creep loading. A random distribution of mastic and aggregate particles with respect to a typical dense gradation was implemented to reconstruct cylindrical specimens. A bonding model represented the cohesion effect in mastic... 

With a surge in consumption of modified binders in recent years, different methods have been used to evaluate the properties of modified binders with relative success. None of these methods are able to fulfill all the requirements for evaluation and intrerpretation of the physical, chemical and rheologocal properties of modified binders. Since rheological master curves can present a mechanical interpretation of the binders in a wide range of times and temperatures, in conjunction with other evaluation metheods, they are considered a promising means of evaluating the suitability of modified bindrers. The available master curve models do not possess the sufficient diversity for this purpose.... 

Pavement preventive maintenance methods such as slurry seals are cost-effective treatments that enhance pavement longevity. Incorporation of recycled materials such as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) into asphalt pavements helps further reduce costs and energy consumption. Because the use of emulsions and pavement preventive methods is uncommon in Iran, there is little experience with the technology in this area. The present study designed and developed slurry seal and emulsion test devices at Sharif University lab to study the feasibility of incorporation of RAP into slurry seal mixtures while respecting the limits specified by the ISSA and ASTM. Two slurry seal mixtures in which cement... 

The objective of this study was to develop an approach for incorporating techniques used to interpret and evaluate deflection data for network-level pavement management system applications. Because it disrupts traffic flow, is a potential safety problem and because of the expense of data collection and analysis, structural capacity is not currently evaluated at the network level by many agencies. A national pavement management system is being developed in Iran and the use of falling weight deflectometers (FWDs) at the network level was deemed necessary to compensate for the lack of vital construction history data in the pavement inventory. It was imperative to increase the interval between... 

In this study performance of tack coat (thin layer bonding asphalt concrete layers) was evaluated. The shear strength of tack coat layer was considered as its measure of performance. Direct shear tests were conducted on two layered HMA specimens. The test variables included the type of tack coat material, application rate (amount of residual bitumen per unit area), substrate condition, normal stress and shear loading rate. Four types of liquid asphalt (CSS, CRS, modified CRS and MC-250) were applied as tack coat. Three substrates conditions were used in the tests. These were 3-days old, 17-days old and long term aged substrates were used. It was found that optimum application rate depends... 

Tack coat is a layer of asphaltic materials, which is used for binding the surface layer to the current asphalt layer. The appropriate interlayer bonding condition will help different layers form a monolithic structure to resist traffic. The lack of proper interlayer bonding result in slippage between pavement layers, decrease the capability for transferring the load to the underlying layers, rutting, crescent cracking and decreasing the life of the Overlay. This study intends to model a pavement system in three dimensions with ABAQUS software in order to evaluate the amount of shear stress at the interface of asphalt layers. In order to prove the validity of the model, the results of the... 

Recycled materials have been very much taken into consideration in recent years due to economic issues and the preservation of natural resources. Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is also of particular importance due to less energy use in construction and environmental compatibility. This study examines the compressive workability and resistance to low temperature crackings of warm mixt asphalt containing reclaimed asphalt pavement (up to 30% by weight of aggregate). Sasobit was used as an organic additive in 1.5% by weight of bitumen in warm mix asphalt. Two additives of crumb rubber modifiers (9, 15 and 18% by weight of bitumen) and hydrated lime (1.5 and 2% by weight of aggregate) were also used to... 

One of the major challenges in construction of rubber modified asphalt mixtures is determination of mixing and compaction temperature (MCT). In order to estimate MCT according to Superpave volumetric mix design procedure, a temperature-viscosity relationship for the binder should be developed using ASTM D2493. This approach provides reasonable temperatures for unmodified binders which are Newtonian fluids at high temperatures and their viscosity is independent of shear rate. However, this method often yields excessively high temperatures for modified binders which exhibit non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior. The reason is that viscosity of modified binders depend on not only temperature but... 

Asphalt binders are known to exhibit an inherent ability to repair damage. Such selfhealing potentially affects the fatigue damage performance of bituminous materials. There is no consensus about the effect of aging and polymer modification on cohesive healing. Also, the effectiveness of rejuvenating agents have not been addressed in previous studies. In the current study, three healing indices are presented to precisely quantify the healing capacity of various binders. These indices have been defined using the damage characteristic curves derived from interrupted linear amplitude sweep (LAS) tests. Instantaneous healing (IH) describes immediate reduction in accumulated damage after the rest... 

Master curves describe the behavior of asphalt binders over a wide range of temperatures and loading frequencies which are utilized by various predictive models in design and analysis procedure of asphalt mixtures. Frequency sweep test is extensively used for construction of master curves within the temperature range of 4 ̊C to 82◦̊C and frequency range of 0.01 to 30 Hz. There is a concern that master curves are unable to accurately represent the low temperature (below 4 C) behavior of binders. In this study a new cyclic loading pattern for the bending beam rheometer (BBR) test was utilized to conduct the low temperature tests and generate an isotherm compliance curve for incorporating the... 

Preventive maintenance strategies have been considered by highway agencies in order to increase pavement service life and to reduce the costs associated with pavement maintenance. Due to the increasing concern regarding promoting sustainable pavements, consideration of the environmental, economic and performance factors in devising preventive maintenance strategies is of great importance.This study contributes to developing a multicriteria decision-making tool for sustainability evaluation of pavement preventive maintenance strategies. The developed tool, PaveSAT, considers the greenhouse gas emission, net present value, and pavement performance to rank preventive maintenance schemes using... 

Cracking is one of the most important distresses in RAP mixtures. One of the common approaches to remedy this problem is to use crumb rubber (CR) and styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) for binder modification. Over time, many asphalt pavements containing modified binders reach the end of their service lives and need to be overlaid.This study evaluated the effects of binder modification and aging on the cracking performance of asphalt mixtures. Two long-term aging levels (placing the loose mixture in an oven for 3 or 6 days at 95 degrees Celsius) were considered for investigating the effects of aging on the cracking performance of asphalt mixtures and producing laboratory-prepared artificial... 

Form and angularity of aggregates are two important shape characteristics that have a significant effect on the performance of hot-mix asphalt. The first step toward the study of the effect of these characteristics on pavement performance is their proper measurement. Current test methods used in practice have several limitations in measuring these characteristics. In this thesis, a method based on image processing called “Sharif Aggregate Imaging System (SHAMS)” has been introduced which is capable of directly measuring aggregate dimensions and determining angularity index for aggregates classification. Calculated results related to the form and angularity of aggregates measured by SHAMS... 

Environmental conditions have a significant effect on the performance of flexible pavements. External factors such as precipitation, temperature, freeze-thaw cycles, and depth to water table play a key role in defining the extent of the impact the environment effects on pavement performance. All types of pavement distress are either caused or aggravated by the environmental factors. Up until now, pavement design in Iran is done according to the AASHTO 1993, which is based on methods that have evolved from the AASHTO Road Test that was conducted at one specific geographic location. The newly released Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) by the addition of climatic input makes... 

A pavement management system (PMS) is a set of tools that aid the decision makers in finding optimum strategies for maintaining pavements in a serviceable condition over a given period of time. A frame work for pavement management system for Iran was proposed by Tabatabaee et al. with the support of Transportation Research Institute of Ministry of Road and Transportation. In the proposed frame work, two horizons of development, short and long term, have been envisaged for more rapid and efficient utilization of the system within the technical and administrative divisions of the Ministry. This thesis describes the software package developed based on the proposed frame work for the... 

Porous Asphalt or Porous Friction Courses (PFCs) are mainly recommended as surface drainage layers on rainy runway pavements and roads with medium traffic. Characteristic features of porous asphalt mixes are improved permeability, skid resistance and sound attenuation. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of mixture parameters such as binder content, amount of modifier and aggregate gradation on the performance and durability of the porous mixtures. In this research ground tire rubber was used as the modifier. Mechanical properties of these mixes were assessed by determining stone-on-stone condition, Marshall stability, unaged abrasion loss, and aged abrasion loss tests.... 

Open graded asphalt mixturesareasphaltic mixes used in flexible pavements and the mainadvantages of them are increased permeability and noise reduction. Conventional application of these mixtures in flexible pavement is like that fluids infiltrate into porous asphalt layer that places over a dense graded asphalt layer and then draintoward ditches along the two sides of the road. Another usage of these mixtures, considered in recent years, is in porous pavements that the structure permits water on the surface topass freely through it and to infiltrateinto thesubsoil. In this research, second application of open graded asphalt mixtures is considered, i.e., porous asphalt pavement. In this type... 

Low temperature cracking is the most important type of asphalt pavement distress that occurs in cold climates. Up until the development of performance grading (PG) based binder specification, there was no irect indication of low temperature suitability of asphalt binders. PG specification was mainly developed for and validated by neat binders.
With increased use of modified asphalt binders in recent years, some of the limitations and shortcomings of the original PG specifications have surfaced.Considering that low temperature cracking is a fracture failure, it was hypothesized that tests based on the fracture mechanics and fracture energy parameter can lead to better classification of...