Theoretical Analysis of Reflective Cracking in Asphalt Pavement with Semi-rigid Base

Abstract

Reflective cracking in semi-rigid base asphalt pavement is one of the major pavement diseases, and the main purpose of this study is to explore the cause of the reflective cracking. In order to simplify the problem, an asphalt concrete pavement containing a crack in semi-rigid base was modelled as elastic multilayer. Based on the linear-elastic superposition principle, the model was decomposed into three sub-models. To solve the governing equations, the Fourier transform was introduced to transform the partial differential equations to ordinary differential equations. The residual theorem and dislocation density function were used to derive the singular integral equations. Lobatto–Chebyshev integration formula, as a numerical method, was used to gain the results of the singular integral equations. The numerical solution of stress intensity factor at the crack tip was obtained. In order to get the factors that affect the crack reflection, numerical analyses were carried out for an asphalt pavement with a crack in the semi-rigid base. The results show that the position of the crack that emerged has different effect on type I and type II cracks, the traffic load centre away from the crack horizontally between 0.2 and 0.3 m could cause type II crack reflection more efficiently, and the semi-rigid base modulus showed more effect on crack propagation.