Cracking is one of the main distresses responsible for the service life reduction of asphalt pavement. On the contrary, self-healing is a process that reverses to cracking and increases the service life. Understanding of the cracking and healing behavior of bituminous materials is very important for service life predictions. Instead of a complex and time-consuming fatigue test, a modified direct tension test with a loading–healing–reloading procedure was developed in this article to characterize the cracking and healing behavior of bituminous mastics. A displacement-controlled loading was applied to obtain damaged specimens with different crack sizes at various postpeak elongations. After unloading and healing, the reloading was applied to quantify the healing behavior under different conditions. The healing behavior is very dependent on rest periods, crack phases, and material types. A clear difference in self-healing property between a polymer-modified bituminous mastic and a conventional penetration grade bituminous mastic was observed for different phases of crack. As a result, the modified direct tension test is believed to be an effective tool for characterizing the self-healing capability of bituminous mastics.
BazinPSaunierJB (1967) Deformability, fatigue and healing properties of asphalt mixes. In: Proceedings of the second international conference on the structural design of asphalt pavements, August 7–11, Ann Arbor, MI, pp. 553–569.
2.
BhasinALittleDBommavaramR. (2008) A framework to quantify the effect of healing in bituminous materials using material properties. Road Materials and Pavement Design9(SI): 219–242.
3.
BommavaramRBhasinALittleD (2009) Determining intrinsic healing properties of asphalt binders: role of dynamic shear rheometer. Transportation Research Record2126: 47–54.
4.
Di BenedettoHNguyenQTSauzéatC (2011) Nonlinearity, heating, fatigue and thixotropy during cyclic loading of asphalt mixtures. Road Materials and Pavement Design12(1): 129–158.
5.
ErkensSMJG (2002) Asphalt concrete response (ACRe)—determination, modeling and prediction. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
6.
FranckenL (1979) Fatigue performance of a bituminous road mix under realistic best conditions. Transportation Research Record712: 30–34.
7.
GaedickeC (2009) Fracture-based method to determine the flexural load capacity of concrete slabs. PhD Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL.
8.
HammoumFdeLaRocheCPiauJM (2002) Experimental investigation of fracture and healing of bitumen at pseudo-contact of two aggregates. In: 9th international conference on asphalt pavements, 17–22 August, Copenhagen, Denmark.
9.
HillerborgAModéerMPeterssonPE (1976) Analysis of crack formation and crack growth in concrete by means of fracture mechanics and finite elements. Cement and Concrete Research6(6): 773–781.
10.
HordijkDA (1991) Local approach to fatigue of concrete. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
11.
JacobsMMJ (1995) Crack growth in asphaltic mixes. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
12.
KimYRFreitasACFAllenDHSoaresJB (2008) Experimental characterization of ductile fracture-damage properties of asphalt binders and mastics. In: 87th Annual meeting of Transportation Research Board, 13–17 January, Washington, DC, USA.
13.
LundstromR (2004) On rheological testing and modelling of asphalt mixtures with emphasis on fatigue characterization. PhD Thesis, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
14.
LundstromRIsacssonU (2003) Characterization of asphalt concrete deterioration using monotonic and cyclic tests. International Journal of Pavement Engineering4(3): 143–153.
15.
MolenaarAAA (1983) Structural Performance and Design of Flexible Road Constructions and Asphalt Concrete Overlays. PhD Thesis, Delft: Delft University of Technology.
16.
NguyenMLSauzeatCDi BenedettoH. (2008) Investigation of cracking in bituminous mixtures with a 4 points bending test. In: The sixth RILEM international conference on cracking in pavements (eds Al-QadiILScarpasTLoizosA), 16–18 June, Chicago, IL, pp. 283–293, CRC press.
17.
PhillipsMC (1998) Multi-step models for fatigue and healing, and binder properties involved in healing. In: Eurobitume workshop on performance related properties for bituminous binders, 3–6 May, Luxembourg, paper no. 115.
18.
QiuJ (2008) Self healing of asphalt mixes: literature review. Report 7-08-183-1. 20October, Delft University of Technology, Delft.
19.
QiuJvan de VenMFCWuS. (2009) Investigating the self healing capability of bituminous binders. Road Materials and Pavement Design10(SI): 81–94.
20.
QiuJvan de VenMFCWuS. (2010) Asphalt pavements are self healing. In: 1st international conference on sustainable construction materials: design, performance and application, August 10–12, Wuhan, China.
21.
QiuJMolenaarAAAvan de VenMFC. (2012a) Investigation of self healing behaviour of asphalt mixes using beam on elastic foundation setup. Materials and Structures45(5): 777–791.
22.
QiuJvan de VenMFCWuS. (2012b) Evaluating self healing capability of bituminous mastics. Experimental Mechanics52(8): 1163–1171.
23.
QiuJ. (2011) Investigating self healing behaviour of pure bitumen using dynamic shear rheometer. Fuel90(8): 2710–2720.
24.
RoeslerJGaedickeC (2010) Flexural behavior of concrete specimens on various support conditions. In: 7th international DUT-workshop on design and performance of sustainable and durable concrete pavements, 10–11 October, Seville, Spain.
25.
ShanLTanYUnderwoodS. (2010) Application of thixotropy to analyze fatigue and healing characteristics of asphalt binder. In: 89th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, 10–14 January, Washington DC, USA.
26.
ShenSChiuHMHuangH (2010) Characterization of fatigue and healing in asphalt binders. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering22(9): 846–852.
27.
SoltaniAAndersonDA (2005) New test protocol to measure fatigue damage in asphalt mixtures. Road Materials and Pavement Design6(4): 485–514.
28.
Van der ZwaagS (ed.) (2007) Self Healing Materials: An Alternative Approach to 20 Centuries of Materials Science. Dordrecht: Springer-Verlag.
29.
Van DijkWMoreaudHQuedevilleA. (1972) The fatigue of bitumen and bituminous mixes. In: 3rd international conference on the structural design of asphalt pavements, September 11–15, London, England.
30.
WoldekidanMHuurmanMMoLT (2010) Testing and modeling of bituminous mortar response. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology: Materials Science Edition25(4): 637–640.
