Temperature effects on brittle fracture in cracked asphalt concretes

Cracking at low temperatures is one of the frequently observed modes of failure in asphalt concretes. In this investigation, fracture tests were performed on cracked asphalt concrete subjected to pure mode I and pure mode II loading at different subzero temperatures. An improved semi-circular bend (SCB) specimen containing a vertical crack was used to conduct the experiments. The SCB specimens produced from the gyratory compacted cylindrical samples were compressively loaded, and critical stress intensity factors, K-If and K-IIf, were then calculated using peak loads obtained from the tests. The experimental results showed that with decreasing the temperature, mode I and mode II critical stress intensity factors increased first but below a certain temperature they both decreased. It was also found that at a fixed temperature, the mode II fracture resistance of the asphalt concrete was higher than its mode I fracture resistance.