ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Accelerated pavement tests (APT) are important for studying the pavements performance. However, APT is limited because factors that affect pavement performance are not widely reproduced, mainly the loading speed. The traffic speed on real roads is higher (generally 80 km/h) than that used to perform APT (5 to 10 km/h). Due to the viscoelasticity of asphalt mixes, fatigue cracks appear quite rapidly in APT due to low speeds. In order to apply APT results to real loading time (RLT) roads, a formulation to estimate the influence of loading speed by employing viscoelasticity theory and Schapery’s work potential theory is presented. Experimental data were taken from APT using a HVS traffic simulator, testing at 8 km/h. An adaptation of the Schapery’s work potential theory formulation was developed and calibrated by using experimental data. The effect of loading speed then was estimated to speeds ranging from 4 to 80 km/h, showing results qualitatively similar to those observed in RLT roads.
