Semi-circular bending test to assess the resistance against crack growth

Title: Semi-circular bending test to assess the resistance against crack growth
Author(s): R. Hofman, B. Oosterbaan, S. M. J. G. Erkens, J. van der Kooij
Paper category : conference
Book title: Sixth International RILEM Symposium on Performance Testing and Evaluation of Bituminous Materials
Editor(s): M. N. Partl
Print-ISBN: 2-912143-35-7
e-ISBN: 2912143772
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2003
Pages: 257 - 263
Total Pages: 7
Nb references: 9
Language: English

Abstract: In the near future asphalt pavement will be subjected to more extreme conditions, like higher axle loads, increased number of vehicles passing and so on. Due to this the resistance against cracking and crack propagation will become a more important fac-tor. Amongst others this means that a good test method will be necessary to determine the crack resistance and the crack growth rate of bituminous mixtures. In the Nether-lands in the nineties of the last century a simple test was developed to measure these properties, the semi-circular bending (SCB) test. This test will be a part of the 12697-CEN test methods for characterisation of hot asphalt mixes. Recently a large number of tests were performed both on laboratory mixtures and on specimens obtained from the road to study the possibilities of the pseudo-static SCB test as a practical tool to determine the fracture toughness (=crack growth resistance). From the results of these tests it was concluded that the repeatability, the reproducibility and the discrimination between "good" and "bad" materials was good. Next to these tests also a cyclic SCB-test was developed to determine the Paris Law constants, i.e. crack growth rate pa-rameters A and m. The tests performed with bituminous mixtures made in the labora-tory indicate that the cyclic SCB-test is very promising for determination of the Paris constants, possibly enabling ranking of asphalt mixtures.

Online publication: 2003-03-02
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00
doi: 10.1617/2912143772.031