The Netherlands has one of the densest road networks with over 140,000 km of roadways. Fatigue cracking is an important distress in flexible pavements. This form of distress results from the application of repeated traffic loading which causes failure. Fatigue cracking assessment on various base layer asphalt mixtures including reclaimed asphalt pavement materials and recycling agents has been addressed in this research work. This research work aims to develop a method for quantifying and assessing this fatigue characterization including the self-healing mechanism of asphalt mixtures using Visco Elastic Continuum Damage Theory. The self-healing in asphalt mixtures was assessed by incorporating group-rest healing periods in a self-developed laboratory testing method. The reliable self-healing models for asphalt mixtures with recycled asphalt materials and recycling agents based on temperature, damage state, and rest periods were predicted using the damage characteristics curve (C-S). Bottom-up cracking in base layer asphalt mixtures was modeled and studied using finite element modeling software FlexPAVE based on the Visco-Elastic Continuum Damage theory. A vivid assessment of mixtures for fatigue and healing characterization is discussed in this research work.

This research work is interrelated with an ongoing project, which aims at developing a protocol to determine the shift factors for the fatigue life of asphalt mixtures to correct healing and aging. The project runs under the umbrella of Knowledge-based Pavement Engineering (KPE), a joint program among Rijkswaterstaat, TNO, and TU Delft. Dura Vermeer is contributing partner to this MSc graduation research work as well.