Civil Engineering ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-31-2020

Abstract

Most of the pavements in the USA are constructed using asphalt concrete (AC). AC changes its property over time due to moisture intrusion and aging. These two factors deteriorate AC significantly, and they are considered as the most important durability measures of AC. Moisture enters a pavement in both liquid and vapor form through the permeable pores that are interconnected. Similarly, oxygen, which is required for the aging process, access an asphalt concrete pavement through the connected pore. However, none of the previous studies correlated AC’s pore structure to the flow of moisture, moisture damage, and aging. In this study, analytical models were developed to determine the flow of moisture and aging, depending on the connected pores. Those models were verified using various laboratory testing.

An AC is a porous media whose total pore is the sum of permeable pores, isolated pores, and dead-end pores. Although few past studies tried to correlate only total pore with moisture damage, none of them was conclusive. Because not only damage occurs during sample conditioning, but also age hardening occurs. Combination of both damage and aging yields inconsistent results. This study, for the first time, has separated damage from aging and established a direct correlation between water-accessible pores and moisture damage.

Keywords

diffusion, Pore structure, Asphalt concrete, moisture damage, Aging

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Civil Engineering

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Civil Engineering

First Committee Member (Chair)

Rafiqul A Tarefder

Second Committee Member

Tang- Tat "Percy" Ng

Third Committee Member

John C. Stormont

Fourth Committee Member

Tariq Khraishi

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