The influence of dispersed reinforcement on the resistance of asphalt concrete to plastic rutting

One way to increase the resistance of asphalt concrete to plastic rutting is to reinforce it with various types of fiber. Existing methods for designing fiber-reinforced asphalt concrete mixtures specify the recommended range of fiber dosages, with the optimal percentage determined experimentally in laboratory conditions through a series of iterative selections and tests. These activities are mainly carried out sequentially, which leads to significant time and financial costs. These costs can be reduced by improving the existing method for designing fiber-reinforced asphalt concrete mixtures in terms of establishing functional relationships that allow the optimal percentage of fiber content to be determined by calculation.

The paper presents a laboratory experiment on modeling the processes of plastic rutting on asphalt concrete pavements in order to determine the empirical dependencies of the average rut depth on the percentage of polyacrylonitrile fibers in the composition of asphalt concrete mixtures and the shear stability of the bitumen binder included in these mixtures. The experiment consisted of separate tests, each of which involved preparing samples of asphalt concrete mixtures using bituminous binders with different shear stability values determined at the maximum design temperature of the pavement layer for the region under study, and varying the content of polyacrylonitrile fibers. The prepared samples were subjected to cyclic loading on a specialized rolling wheel simulation machine. As a result of the experiments, the values of the parameter characterizing the resistance of asphalt concrete to plastic rutting – the average rut depth – were determined.

The results of the experiment established a functional relationship between the change in average rut depth and the polyacrylonitrile fiber content and shear stability of the bituminous binder. The results of the study allow, given the known shear stability of the bituminous binder, to calculate the optimal content of polyacrylonitrile fibers to achieve the required average rut depth in asphalt concrete.

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