APA TEST AND NONLINEAR FATIGUE DAMAGE ANALYSIS OF THE REINFORCED ASPHALT PAVEMENT

Wheel repeated loading test is carried out to the asphalt pavement specimen under several loading levels by using Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) to compare the reinforcing effect of fabric and glassgrid on the fatigue characteristics of asphalt pavement. Based on this, one nonlinear fatigue damage model is suggested. By using fatigue damage mechanics-finite element method, the paper simulated numerically the total process of the APA test, and analyzed the stress, displacement and fatigue life of specimens. The comparison between the results of simulation and test proves the rationality of the suggested model. It is pointed out that using reinforcing material can remarkaeblely improve the stress and dispacement levels in pavement after the crack spreads across the reinforcement, and so to increase the pavement’s fatigue life effectively due to the bridge effect of reinforcing materials. Besides, based on the fatigue analysis, it is proved further that Paris equation can be used to describe the spreading process of the fatigue crack in pavement, and related parameters can be obtained accordingly.