Contribution of Day-Night Temperature Fluctuation to Top-Down Cracking in Asphalt Pavement

Abstract

Top-down longitudinal cracking in asphalt pavement is one of the serious issues in cold regions, although a recently developed pavement mechanistic-empirical (ME) design guide predicts the amount of this cracking damage is considered to be by repeated traffic loads only. Like repeated traffic loads, repeated temperature cycles due to lower night temperatures and higher day temperatures can cause damage in the asphalt concrete (AC) layer and contribute to the top-down longitudinal cracking. Recently, a closed-form equation was developed by the authors for calculating damage due to repeated day-night temperature fluctuations. In this study, the top-down longitudinal cracking predicted by the traditional pavement ME design approach is compared with the top-down longitudinal cracking predicted by the authors’ equation/model, which considers both traffic and temperature induced damages. A total of 29 long-term pavement performance (LTPP) test section data were used to compare the field and the predicted top-down longitudinal cracking. Results show that the top-down longitudinal cracking prediction error, which is the difference between the field measured and the prediction values, decreases by 13% when combining the temperature induced damage with the traffic induced damage.