Abstract
A new specification procedure was proposed recently to determine the low-temperature performance grade of asphalt binders. This new procedure uses bending beam rheometer (BBR) and direct tension test (DTT) data at two temperatures to determine the low-temperature grade of an asphalt binder. A study was conducted to validate this procedure by using asphalt binder retained samples from the widely published test road in Pennsylvania. This road was constructed in 1976 in Elk County, and performance—including low-temperature transverse cracking index—was monitored over 6 years. In this study, the retained binder samples from test sections T-1 to T-6 were tested with the BBR and the new Superpave® DTT. The data from these two tests were analyzed to obtain critical cracking temperatures and low-temperature performance grades. Results indicate that the new procedure correctly predicts the temperature at which cracking was observed in the field.
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