Construction quality impact in asphalt pavements cost: a framework based on air voids, linear viscoelastic and fatigue behaviour

ABSTRACT

The loss of performance against fatigue is evident for situations of poor execution of the surface layer, quantified in this research by the parameter in-field air voids. This loss of performance has a direct impact on highways operating costs. To analyse the loss of fatigue performance, eight field-applied asphalt mixes were evaluated, comparing laboratory compaction (5.50% air voids) with as-built in-field core samples (random variable air voids). The impact of increased air voids on LVE behaviour, fatigue life, and costs were investigated. Decrease in stiffness was observed for in-field air voids greater than 7.00%. Through the S-VECD model and FlexPAVE^TM software, a significant decrease in fatigue life was observed for in-field air voids greater than 8.00%. Costs, defined as costs per traffic request (N) (US$/N) were significantly affected for in-field air voids greater than this value (8.00%). Based on that, a Payment reduction factor (PRF) was proposed. In this way, it is concluded that the framework demonstrated throughout the paper, based on a mechanistic approach and using the FlexPAVE^TM, allows the evaluation of the construction quality impact on asphalt pavement cost.

KEYWORDS:

• Asphalt mixtures
• Air voids
• S-VECD
• Costs analysis
• Payment reduced factor

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank ANP/Petrobras, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for their financial support and grants, and to Professor Dr. Richard Kim and the research group under his advisement in North Carolina State University (NSCU) for the licence to use the FLEXPAVE^TM software.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.