Variability analysis of asphalt mixture beam bending test

The random shape and distribution of the aggregates add large inhomogeneity into the mixtures. Large material composition variability will increase the risk of damages, such as cracking and rutting. This paper introduced a digital image processing based HMA mixture material composition variability analysis method as a new material performance evaluation supplementary tool. The low temperature performances of six types of asphalt pavement materials have been evaluated through beam bending tests. Through comparing with the beam bending lab test data, it has shown that material composition variability has direct influence on the variability of the strength of the HMA beam bending test specimens, and proved the effectiveness of the proposed variability analysis method.