ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the material characterization of some of the basic types of materials used in pavements. It discusses material characterization for soil, unbound granular material, asphalt mix, cement concrete and cemented material. Asphalt mix is made up of asphalt binder and aggregates mixed in specified proportion. Rheolgical models are widely used to describe the mechanical response of materials which varies with time. A three component model can be composed of a combination of either two springs and a dashpot or two dashpots and a spring. A model with two springs and a dashpot is called a standard solid model. A model with two dashpots and a spring is called a standard fluid model. Further depending on whether one spring and one dashpot are connected in series or in parallel, these can be called as Maxwell type or Kelvin-Voigt type.
