Abstract
PURPOSES : Reflection cracking has been one of the major causes of distress when asphalt pavement is laid on top of concrete pavement. This study evaluated the reflection cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures reinforced with asphalt embedded glass fiber and carbon fiber using a Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) overlay tester. METHODS : Different asphalt mixtures such as polymer-modified mastic asphalt (PSMA) and a dense graded asphalt mixture were reinforced with asphalt-embedded carbon fiber and glass fiber. For comparison purposes, two PSMA asphalt mixtures and one dense graded asphalt mixture were evaluated without fiber reinforcement. Two different overlay test modes, the repeated overlay test (R-OT) and monotonic overlay test (M-OT), were used to evaluate the reflection cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures at $0^{\circ}C$. In the R-OT test, the number of repeated load when the specimen failed was obtained. In the M-OT test, the tensile strength at the peak load and tensile strain were obtained. RESULTS : As expected, the fiber-reinforced asphalt mixture showed a higher reflection cracking resistance than the conventional nonreinforced asphalt mixtures based on the R-OT test and M-OT test. The dense graded asphalt mixture showed the least reflection cracking resistance and less resistance than the PSMA. CONCLUSIONS : The TTI overlay tester could be used to differentiate the reflection cracking resistance values of asphalt mixtures. Based on the R-OT and M-OT results, the carbon-fiber-reinforced asphalt mixture showed the highest reflection cracking resistance among the nonreinforced asphalt mixtures and glass-fiber-reinforced asphalt mixture.