Abstract
In order to investigate the fatigue damage property of permeable friction courses (PFC) under the coupling action of water, temperature and load, the PFC with length of 2.93 m, width of 1.10 m and thickness of 0.04 m was prepare in the laboratory and tested by the accelerated loading testing system MMLS3. The profilometer and the portable seismic properties analyzer (PSPA) was utilized to measured the rutting depth and modulus of the whole asphalt pavement, respectively. It is found that the PFC is compaction-type rutting. In the position 200 mm, the modulus first increases and then decreases. The excess pore water pressure is not measured in pavement. The results can provide beneficial references for the design, construction and fatigue damage analysis of PFC.

Introduction
Now, high viscosity polymer modifiers is often added into the asphalt enhance the bonding properties and improve the deformation resistance of asphalt binders [1]. Hence, the permeable friction courses (PFC) is successfully utilized by high-grade highways and urban road pavements.
PFC is a new type of asphalt pavement structural layer placed at the surface of a conventional asphalt concrete pavement structure with large air void content of 18 to 22 percent [2, 3]. It produces several benefits for driving security, comfortability and the environment with reduced risk of hydroplaning and wet skidding, improved drainage, decreased splash and spray noise reduction capabilities [4].
PFC may exhibit distress modes such as clogging of voids due to shrinking, delamination of pavement surface, cracking due to fatigue and rutting under the combined coupling effect of traffic load, ambient temperature and water.
In 2017, Ma et al. carried out a full-scale accelerated pavement test on the in situ asphalt pavement with accelerated loading testing (ALF) [5]. During the test, the researchers used a portable seismic property analyzer (PSPA) to measure the seismic modules, and the MLS profilometer driver-p2003 to measure the profile of the in situ pavement, obtaining the correlations between modules, rutting and accelerated loading numbers.
In 2012, Jurado et al. used accelerated loading facilities (ALF) to conduct the accelerated loading test on asphalt pavement, and then utilized the PSPA to measure the change in pavement surface layers [6]. They found that the combination of the asphalt pavement module changing patterns and fatigue test features exhibited in the laboratory can predict the occurrence of fatigue cracking on-field asphalt pavement.
In 2009, Celaya et al. evaluated the effectiveness and accuracy of the portable seismic property analyzer (PSPA) to rapidly and nondestructively measure the thickness and in situ moduli of asphalt pavement layers [7]. The PSPA testing of asphalt concrete pavements modulus is practical and reproducible. Meanwhile, the PSPA modulus also effectively reflects the microcracking and delamination of asphalt concrete pavements. Compared with the core sampling and testing modulus in the laboratory test, the error of PSPA modulus is within 20 percent.
In 2002, Gucunski and Maher evaluated the effectiveness of PSPA in quality control and monitoring of asphalt concrete pavements and cement concrete pavements [8].
In 2012, Mogawer et al. utilized the PSPA and MMLS to evaluate the use of thin lift polymer modified asphalt in treatments of existing asphalt pavement surface [9].
Bhattacharjee, Epps, and Partl used MMLS3 in the accelerated loading test on asphalt concrete pavements to evaluate the fatigue cracking resistance of asphalt concrete [10, 11, 12].
In 2014, Druta et al. used MMLS3 to evaluate the friction coefficient changing patterns of asphalt pavement surfaces containing limestone aggregate using an accelerated loading method [13].
In 2014, Coleri et al. tested the permeability coefficient of permeable asphalt concrete with a heavy vehicle simulator (HVS) [14].
The above literature proves the feasibility of testing the asphalt concrete pavement with accelerated loading test system, while measuring the changing patterns of asphalt concrete pavement modulus with the PSPA to analyze the surface damage of asphalt pavement. However, there are few reports that study the changing patterns of rutting and modulus of PFC with accelerated loading test.
To investigate the fatigue damage property of PFC under water, temperature and load environment, a permeable asphalt concrete test road of 2.93 m long
Materials and test
High viscosity polymer modified asphalt
First, the high viscosity polymer modifier and Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Block Copolymer SBS(I-D) polymer modified asphalt was cut for 30 min at 5000 r/min and 180
Technical Performance of High viscosity polymer modified asphalt [23]
Technical Performance of High viscosity polymer modified asphalt [23]
Coarse aggregate
Form a framework of contact structure between coarse aggregate – coarse aggregate to prevent the permeable asphalt concrete from breaking in the paving and rolling process of coarse aggregate. The test used 10–15 mm hard sandstone, the technical properties are shown in Table 2.
Technical properties of hard sandstone crushed stone
Technical properties of hard sandstone crushed stone
To prevent the permeable asphalt concrete from water damage and particles dropping, the fine aggregate is limestone mechanism sand to enhance the viscosity of asphalt mastic. The technical specifics are shown in Table 3.
Technical specifics of mechanism sand
Technical specifics of mechanism sand
The filler is limestone mineral powder, which significantly enhances the bonding force of the aggregates in permeable asphalt concrete, the technical properties are shown in Table 4.
Technical specifics of filler
Technical specifics of filler
Mineral gradation of the PFC
As polyester fiber does not absorb water, it improves the water stability of permeable asphalt concrete. In the meantime, polyester fiber can be evenly dispersed in the mixing process easily. The polyester fiber length is 9 mm, diameter is 15
Paving PFC and setting test point
Pavement with PFC
To test the road performance of PFC, three pavement structure layers were set up, as shown in Fig. 1.
Pavement structure with PFC.
The 40 cm cement concrete layer has a longitudinal slope at 3% and a cross slope of 0%. The layer is 3.23 m long and 1.36 m wide. The 5 cm AC-16C is 3.17 m long and 1.30 m wide, and the 4 cm PAC-13 is 2.93 m long and 1.10 m wide.
The standard Marshall test and asphalt membrane thickness determines the optimum oil to stone ratio for permeable asphalt concrete [16, 17]. The standard Marshall specimens at the optimum oil-to-rock ratio and rutting specimens were used to test the road performance of permeable asphalt concrete. The results are shown in Table 6.
Physical and mechanical and road performance tests for the PFC
Physical and mechanical and road performance tests for the PFC
Note: Polyester fiber made up of 0.3% of the asphalt mixture, the same below.
The two 30-liter conventional asphalt concrete mixer in the laboratory mix asphalt concrete several times. The mixed PFC was placed in a stainless steel tub and insulated in an oven at 180
PFC with a coefficient of loosening at 1.1, was paved on AC-16C, see Fig. 2.
Manual paving of PFC.
To study the decay patterns of road performance of PFC wear a layer under the multi-field coupling effect of water, temperature and load, test points were arranged in the indoor test road, see Fig. 3. The density, elastic modulus, rutting, excess pore water pressure and permeability of the whole asphalt concrete layer were tested and after accelerated loading [19].
Test point setting.
MMLS3 is a 1/3 full-scale accelerated loading test system. As the test principles and system structure in Fig. 4. MMLS3 accelerated loading test system consists of 4 pneumatic rubber tires, 48 polyurethane guide wheels, 1 Vesconite guide belt, and 2 drive belts. The 4 pneumatic rubber tires conduct the loading on the road surface. The facility is small in size, light in weight and easy to transport, so it is suitable for both indoor tests and field experiments. The MMLS3 can test pavement thicknesses up to 125 mm and can test the effects of different temperature, wet and dry environmental conditions on the pavement.
MMLS3 loads 7200 times per hour with the maximum wheel load at 2.7 kN on pneumatic tires of 300 mm diameter. The maximum strength of tire and road contact is 700 kPa.
MMLS3 has a lateral swing function with a maximum swing length of 75 mm per side, simulating the actual distribution of the load (normal distribution).
Diagram of MMLS3.
When the accelerated loading system MMLS3 rolling over the PFC, the tire falls from one end and gets up at the other end. 0 mm is the transition section from the guide plate of the accelerated loading system MMLS3 to the asphalt concrete pavement. 800 mm is the transition section from the asphalt concrete pavement to the guide plate of the accelerated loading MMLS3. The contact pressure of 700 kPa generated by the tire to the asphalt concrete pavement will change.
To simulate the multi-field coupling effect of permeable asphalt concrete pavement in load-water-temperature, the 1/3 full-scale accelerated loading system MMLS3 and the water environment system are built as shown in Fig. 5.
MMLS3 and water heating and circulation device.
As shown in Fig. 4, the accelerated loading system MMLS3, the water heating system and the water circulation system constitute a complete test system. 60
Hot water sprayed on the PFC.
To test the excess pore water pressure generated by the permeable asphalt concrete layer under accelerated loading and the changing patterns of excess pore water pressure change, the pore water sensor was buried in the AC-16 asphalt concrete layer at the depth of 400 mm and 600 mm, respectively. The sensor was partially in contact with the PAC-13 permeable asphalt concrete layer, see Fig. 7.
Excess pore water pressure sensor.
Rutting test of permeable asphalt concrete pavement
Cross-sectional tester moved automatically along the track vertically and laterally. The testing points are set along the track in the horizontal direction with 50 mm intervals between two indicator pins (road surface or plate shown) according to the prompt slot (location) arrangement. The entire cross-sectional test length is 540 mm. See Fig. 8.
Profilometer.
A cross-section tester was used to test the rutting changes of permeable asphalt concrete pavement after accelerated loading. The cross-sections are 0, 200, 400, 600 and 800 according to the layout of Fig. 2. The results are shown in Figs 9–11.
Rutting at point 200 mm.
As shown in Fig. 9, the permeable asphalt concrete did not show “hump” rutting after accelerated loading, probably due to the large air voids in the pavement mixture. The rutting is compact-density type, and the rutting form at other points is the same.
In Fig. 9, there was a strange curve, which was produced by the profilemeter that suddenly malfunctioned during rutting measurement.
Rutting at each point.
As shown in Fig. 10, the rutting changed quickly in the first 80 000 times, and the change slowed down after 80 000 times. The change of rutting depth stabilized as the number of accelerated loading increases.
The permeable asphalt concrete pavement was cut by a cutter at point 270, see Fig. 10.
Crossing-section.
As shown in Fig. 11, it can be seen that the permeable asphalt mixture was gradually compacted in the accelerated loading process, and the aggregate particles did not migrate or bulge to either side of the wheel track.
The seismic modulus [20], E, is given by Eq. (1) as:
In Eq. (1),
In Eq. (2),
The modulus of asphalt pavement is correlated to the temperature. The higher the temperature, the smaller the modulus. The water content also affects the modulus of asphalt pavement. In most cases, the larger the water content, the smaller the modulus. The effect of water inside the asphalt pavement on the modulus is not taken into consideration. We only converted the modulus measured at different temperatures to the modulus at 25
In Eq. (3),
The modulus of the PFC was tested by a portable seismic wave tester PSPA according to the arrangement of points in Fig. 2, see Fig. 12.
Modulus of pavement with PFC using PSPA.
PSPA test interface, see Fig. 13.
PSPA test interface.
The excess pore water pressure sensors are buried at point 400 to point 800. Meanwhile, point 0 and point 800 both are the MMLS3 tires placing and lifting site, which has a great impact on the modulus test of PFC. Therefore, the test only summarizes the change patterns of modulus at point 200. See Fig. 14.
The relation curve of elastic modulus and the number of accelerated loading.
As shown in Fig. 14, the elastic modulus of PFC goes up first and then drops before it flats with narrow volatility as the number of accelerated loading increases. The reason behind the trend may be the fact that the compaction of the permeable asphalt concrete enhanced the elastic modulus. Then, the PFC suffers damages under the coupling effect of water-temperature-load, thus reducing the elastic modulus until the statistics enter a stable range. As shown in Fig. 11, the permeable asphalt concrete layer and the AC-16 layer are completely compacted.
To capture the development pattern of excess pore ware pressure of PFC during the accelerated loading process, the test embedded two pore water pressure sensors between the permeable asphalt concrete layer and the common asphalt concrete layer AC-16C, but the test failed to collect the excess pore water pressure inside the permeable asphalt concrete layer during accelerated loading possibly because of the large air void (between 18 to 22 per cent) of the permeable asphalt concrete layer. The water in the pores can flow freely when tires rolled and crushed over, which is not enough to produce weak compression deformation [22], so it cannot produce excess pore water pressure. It is also possible that the measuring range and the resolution of the pore water pressure sensor are too large to sense low excess pore water pressure.
Conclusion
In this experiment, a 2.93 m length
This experiment fails to collect the excess pore water pressure in the permeable asphalt concrete pavement.
From this investigation, it is found that the structure of stone-to-stone, void ration and high viscosity polymer modified asphalt were a key point for PFC mixture design.
