Flexural Fatigue

Overview

The flexural fatigue test is used to characterize the fatigue life of HMA at intermediate pavement
operating temperatures. This characterization is useful because it provides estimates of HMA
pavement layer fatigue life under repeated traffic loading. In a well designed pavement, strains in
the pavement are low enough so that fatigue is not a problem. However, when pavements are
under-designed strains are sufficiently high to cause fatigue failures under repeated loads. These
failures ultimately result in fatigue cracking which will cause disintegration of the pavement if
not maintained in time.

The basic flexural fatigue test subjects a HMA beam to repeated flexural bending in a controlled
atmosphere (Figure 1). In order to relate laboratory results to normally observed field
performance, a shift factor of 10 to 20 is typically needed. Because of the testing equipment
complexity and long testing times, the flexural fatigue test is primarily a research test and is not a
standard test in Superpave mix design or quality assurance testing.

The standard beam fatigue procedure is found in:

 AASHTO T 321: Determining the Fatigue Life of Compacted Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA)
Subjected to Repeated Flexural Bending

Figure 1: Flexural fatigue device loaded with a HMA beam.

Background

In HMA pavements, fatigue cracking occurs when repeated traffic loads ultimately cause
sufficient damage in a flexible pavement to result in fatigue cracking (Figure 2). A number of
factors can influence a pavement's ability to withstand fatigue, including pavement structure
(thin pavements or those that do not have strong underlying layers are more likely to show
fatigue cracking than thicker pavements or those with a strong support structure), age of the
pavement, and the materials used in construction. The flexural fatigue test is used to investigate
fatigue as it relates to HMA construction materials.

Figure 2: Extensive fatigue cracking.

Fatigue Life Concept

The concept of a fatigue life centers around the universal idea that most materials undergo a
gradual deterioration under repeated loads that are much smaller than the ultimate strength of the
material. A paper clip can be broken by repeatedly bending it just as a large pressure vessel can
fail after being subject to many thousands of pressure cycles. HMA pavements are similar.
A classic fatigue crack starts at the bottom of a HMA pavement layer (or structure) and grows
towards the surface. It development is directly proportional to the strain level at the bottom of the
layer (Carpenter, 2003). This strain level changes with HMA thickness (thicker pavements give
lower strain values), stiffness and other properties.

Endurance Limit

In 1970 Monismith et al. suggested that the relationship between strain at the bottom of the
HMA layer and the number of cycles to failure seems to undergo a significant slope change at
lower strain levels (in the vicinity of 70 microstrain). More recent studies seem to suggest that at
low levels of strain (around 70 microstrain), HMA mixtures have, in effect, an infinite fatigue
life. The theory is that a continuous physical-chemical healing reaction occurs, even during
continuous loading, at low strain levels (Carpenter, 2003). Therefore, a material property of
HMA is its ability to recover some constant amount of damage or its "healing potential". If
damage due to loading falls below this "healing potential" then damage accumulation is virtually
non-existent (Carpenter, 2003). Typical plots of flexural strain vs. loads to failure tend to look
like Figure 3. Note that beyond a certain point the plot is essentially horizontal - indicating an
infinite fatigue life.
Work on NCHRP Project 9-38, Endurance Limit of Hot Mix Asphalt Mixtures to Prevent
Fatigue Cracking in Flexible Pavements, is underway to identify the existence of a fatigue
endurance limit and measure it for selected HMA mixtures.

Flexural Fatigue Test Principles

The flexural fatigue test is performed by placing a beam of HMA in repetitive four point loading
at a specified strain level. During the test, the beam is held in place by four clamps and a
repeated haversine (sinusoidal) load is applied to the two inner clamps with the outer clamps
providing a reaction load (Figure 4). The load rate is variable but is normally set at 1 to 10 Hz.
This setup produces a constant bending moment over the center portion of the beam (between the
two inside clamps). The deflection caused by the loading is measured at the center of the beam.
The number of loading cycles to failure can then give an estimate of a particular HMA mixture's
fatigue life. Another important value that can be obtained from the beam fatigue test is the
dissipated energy of the specimen. Dissipated energy is a measure of the energy that is lost to the
material or altered through mechanical work, heat generation, or damage to the sample.
Constant Strain vs. Constant Stress

In recent years fatigue testing has been conducted using both constant stress or constant strain
load applications. In constant strain mode the strain is maintained constant and the stress is
allowed to vary. In constant stress mode the load is maintained the same and the strain is allowed
to vary. Experience has shown that thick HMA pavements (> 5 inches (125 mm)) generally
perform closer to a constant stress mode in the field, while thin HMA pavements (< 5 inches
(125 mm)) generally perform closer to a constant strain mode in the field. Therefore, the constant
strain mode favors more flexible mixtures and the constant stress mode favors stiffer materials.
The constant strain mode is much more widely used because it appears to provide results that are
more comparative to field observations.

Test Termination

The decision on when to terminate a flexural fatigue test depends on the test mode and purpose.
For the constant stress mode, the test is continued until the beam actually breaks. For the
constant strain mode, failure is more difficult to define because in order to keep the strain
constant the applied stress is continually reduced, which results in a beam that never really
breaks. Therefore, in constant strain mode, failure is normally defined as the point at which the
load or stiffness reaches some predetermined value; most typically 50 percent of the original
value.

Number of Tests

Typically it is not enough to perform only one isolated flexural fatigue test. Rather, a plot of
multiple tests (typically a minimum of 10), each using a different load (for the constant stress
mode) or different strain (for the constant strain mode) are produced (Kallas and Puzinauskas,
1972). These plots can reasonably estimate a particular HMA mixtures stress vs. loads to failure
or strain vs. loads to failure relationship. Other plots can also be generated.
Testing Temperature

Beam fatigue testing is performed at intermediate temperatures, usually 68°F (20°C), because
fatigue cracking is thought to be a primary HMA distress at these intermediate temperatures. At
higher in-service temperatures (above about 100°F (38°C)) rutting is usually the HMA distress of
greatest concern, while at lower temperatures (below about 40 °F (4°C)) thermal cracking is
usually the HMA distress of greatest concern.

Test Description

The following description is a brief summary of the test. It is not a complete procedure and
should not be used to perform the test. The complete test procedure can be found in:

 AASHTO T 321: Determining the Fatigue Life of Compacted Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA)
Subjected to Repeated Flexural Bending

Summary

Small HMA beams (15 x 2 x 2.5 inches (380 x 50 x 63 mm)) are made and placed in a 4-point
loading machine, which subjects the beam to a repeated load. Tests can be run at a constant
strain level or at a constant stress level. Figure 5 shows the major test equipment.
Equipment_fatigue.jpg

Approximate Test Time

Testing time is dependent on the strain level chosen for the test. High strain (400 - 800
microstrain) may be completed in a few hours. Low strain tests (200 – 400 microstrain) can take
several days. Even lower strain levels (50 - 100 microstrain) can take upwards of a month.
Typically 8 to 10 samples are used to develop results for any mix. Hence, it may take several
days to several weeks to develop sufficient fatigue data to allow analysis of a given mixture.

Basic Procedure

1. Obtain a test beam by sawing at least 0.25 inches (6 mm) from both sides of a compacted
HMA specimen. The final dimensions should be 15 inches (380 mm) length by 2 inches (50 mm)
height by 2.5 inches (63 mm) width (Figure 6)
Beam_fatigue.jpg

Prepare three replicate beams. If these are laboratory-prepared or loose field samples, compact
them in accordance with AASHTO PP 3 or ASTM D 3202. These compaction procedures
describe the use of a linear kneading compactor (rather than a SGC) to compact square (rather
than cylindrical) samples (Slideshow 1). If these are already-compacted samples obtained from
the roadway, they need not be compacted in the laboratory.