CENTRE DE RECHERCHES ROUTIERES

Etablissement reconnu par application de l'arrt-loi du 30 janvier 1947

BOULEVARD DE LA WOLUWE 42 - B 1200 BRUXELLES, BELGIQUE TEL. (32-2) 771.20.80 A06

FATIGUE OF ROAD MATERIALS UNDER SIMULATED TRAFFIC CONDITIONS

The laboratory study of fatigue in road materials is carried out by subjecting samples of theses materials to sinusoidal loads at a con-
stant amplitude.
The fatigue law thus derived establishes the relation between the amplitude of the elongations and the number of cycles to failure (life-
span).
This information is to serve as an input in design calculations for road courses.

However, when such materials are incorporated into a road layer, the stresses they are subject to (induced by road vehicles) vary in
both size and duration; they are randomly distributed in time and are interrupted by rest periods of greater or lesser duration.
lt has been demonstrated (publ. 2,3) that life-spans under such conditions are greater than those which are determined in the simple
conditions generally employed in the laboratory.
The study of more complex conditions of stress, bearing a greater resemblance to reality, is henceforward possible thanks to a test
method which makes it possible to generate and control programmed signals.

METHOD

The period, the shape of the signal

and the amplitude of the successi-
ve peaks which are to be genera-
ted are entered, in digital form, into
the memory of a minicomputer.
During the test, the computer
sends a signal to the electromag-
netic vibrator of a repeated ben-
ding apparatus (publ. 2) and in turn
receives signals from the load and
displacement transducers of the
apparatus.

Figure 1 : Sinusoidal load with randomly variable amplitude

The minicomputer :
- stores the measurements in memory;
- counts the amplitudes of the load and displacement into categories;
- controls the signal (load or displacement);
- entirely processes the data (including the calculation of the complex modulus);
- carries out 6 safety tests per cycle;
- stops the experiment automatically if the specimen breaks or in case of equipment failure.

ADVANTAGES

The apparatus can work just as well with controlled displacement as with controlled load.

lt generates and controls series of sinusoidal signals which may be or not be .interrupted by variable rest periods.
Among the possible tests, the following can be mentioned:
- constant amplitude (normal fatigue test),
- variable amplitudes, in blocks of constant amplitude,
- randomly variable amplitude (figure 1) (the amplitude spectrum being assigned by use of the Monte Carlo method),
- simulation of road traffic (figure 2).
TRAFFIC SIMULATION METHOD

In orderto simulate Belgian freighttraffic, a quasi-random series of 10,000 digital code numbers corresponding to 10 different types of
vehicle was set up and recorded by the computer.

A wave train reproducing the intensity of the load on each axle and the rest periods separating the passages of the succesive axles
from one another corresponds to each number in this series.

Code Number 4 3 11

Vehicle Type

ci
4411111. daufilMiji eliEJ
A
01
6-

4.

FE-- 1

Figure 2: Example of simulated traffic

PUBLICATIONS

CENTRE DE RECHERCHES ROUTIERES,

Repeated Bending Apparatus.
C.R.R. information leaflet A05.

L FRANCKEN,
Fatigue Performance of a Bituminous Road Mix under Realistic Conditions.
58th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Session 45, Washington, 16th January 1979.

L. FRANCKEN,
Fatigue d'un enrob bitumineux soumis des conditions de sollicitations ralistes .
La Technique routire XXIV/4, 1979.