Rutting Potential of an Asphalt Pavement Exposed to High Temperatures

The present study investigates the Asphalt concrete's (AC's) rutting potential at extreme hot (60 degrees C) and cold (-30 degrees C) pavement temperatures. Cylindrical samples were collected from the field and creep tests were performed at -15 degrees C, 0 degrees C, and 18 degrees C. The viscoelastic material properties in terms of Prony series were determined for 60 degrees C, 50 degrees C, 45 degrees C, 30 degrees C, -20 degrees C, and -30 degrees C. A three-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) model is developed using ABAQUS which uses the determined Prony series parameters to predict the rutting in AC pavement for both static and cyclic load. Considering 30 degrees C as a reference temperature, the rutting under static loading at 60 degrees C is 3.8 times higher than that at the reference. On the other hand, for same temperature variation but under cyclic loading, the rutting is observed to be 8.6 times higher.