ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Durability and lifetime prediction of asphalt roads can only be obtained by fatigue tests. A correlation between fracture and fatigue behavior has not been verified yet enough. This paper reports a study of fatigue crack properties of asphalt interfaces by means of the wedge splitting test after Tschegg. Instead of beams and the 3-or 4-point bending beam test, drilling cores and the wedge splitting method is used for analyzing the fatigue crack properties of asphalt interfaces. The asphalt base layer surface has been prepared in two ways, fresh and sandblasted, before spreading the top layer. Due to temperature dependency of material properties the tests have been performed in a climate chamber at –10° to +10°C. The challenge of determining the crack length was solved optically in a qualified sense. The results show that the wedge splitting method according to Tschegg is a practicable and reproducible way for fatigue testing of asphalt interfaces.
