Analysis and assessment of fatigue response of multilayer asphalt surfacing system on orthotropic steel deck bridge with the five-point bending beam tests

Abstract

The French five-point bending (5PB) beam test provides a laboratory scale test that allows studying the fatigue resistance of surfacing systems on orthotropic steel deck bridges (OSDB). The surfacing structure for OSDB in the Netherlands consists mostly of a multilayer system: top porous asphalt layer, Guss asphalt layer, steel deck, and two membrane layers between the asphalt surfacing layers. In this paper, the 5PB beam test was employed to evaluate the performance of the whole multilayer structure on a steel deck and also to evaluate the mechanical properties of both the top and bottom membrane and the influence they have on the structure. Four membrane products were used as the top and bottom membrane layers in the 5PB beams. Furthermore, in the last part of this paper, the dissipated energy was used to explain the incremental damage during the testing.