ABSTRACT
Wheel tracking test is a simulative test, which is commonly used for characterising rutting in asphalt mixtures. However, with the traditional setup of the test device, confined at all four sides, it is difficult to capture the primary and a part of the secondary phase of rutting. The modified setup of the device, in contrast, can capture the tertiary phase where shear deformation is dominant. This setup utilises two unconfined lateral sides along the direction of wheel tracking, and the corresponding lateral deformation can be measured along with the vertical deformation under wheel loading. The Simple Performance Test (SPT) candidates such as the Dynamic Modulus (DM), and Dynamic Creep (DC) are recommended for fundamental characterisation of permanent deformation in asphalt mixtures. The current study evaluated the correlation of the SPT test candidates with the modified wheel tracker. The research aims to investigate if the results from the revised version of the wheel tracker agree with the results from the fundamental DM and DC tests. A relatively novel parameter, FN-Index, which is the ratio of the accumulated deformation to the number of loading cycles at the tertiary flow point, was explored. It was found that the MWT test is well-correlated with DM and DC tests.
