Engineering Fracture Mechanics 77 (2010) 11751190

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Engineering Fracture Mechanics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfracmech

The fracture process zone in asphalt mixture at low temperature

Xinjun Li a,*, Mihai Marasteanu b
a b

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, Federal Highway Administration, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101, USA Department of Civil Engineering, 500 Pillsbury Drive S.E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The fracture process zone (FPZ) is a key factor to mechanistically characterize material fracture. This study investigates the FPZ of asphalt mixture at low temperature. The fracture process under a semi-circular bend (SCB) test of seven asphalt mixtures that represent a combination of different factors was monitored using an acoustic (AE) system with eight piezoelectric sensors. The size of FPZ was estimated by locating micro-cracks that correspond to 95% AE energy before peak load in the vicinity of the initial crack tip. The experimental data illustrates the signicant inuence of test temperature on the behavior of the asphalt mixture. Comparison results showed that the size of the FPZ signicantly depends on air voids and aggregate type, but is less depend on the asphalt content. It was found that at a very low temperature, different loading rates produced very close FPZ, both for the width and length. No obvious difference was observed on the width of the FPZ for the three different initial notch lengths, whereas the length of the FPZ was found signicantly increases with the decrease of the notch length. The size of FPZ was also numerically estimated for one case with the cohesive zone model (CZM) calibrated by experimental data from the same SCB test. The FPZ size obtained with both methods agrees reasonably with each other. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 13 July 2009 Received in revised form 15 February 2010 Accepted 19 February 2010 Available online 24 February 2010 Keywords: Asphalt mixture Fracture process zone Acoustic emission Micro-crack Cohesive zone model

1. Introduction As one of the primary distress modes of asphalt pavements built in the northern climates, low temperature cracking results in accelerating the deterioration of an asphalt pavement and coincidentally requires maintenance sooner than anticipated. Numerous research efforts based on empirical or theoretical methods have been done in the past decades to better understand the mechanism of this distress and to select materials with improved fracture resistance. By developing experimental protocols or phenomenological models, these research efforts require laboratory tests to determine the material properties to describe the crack initiation and propagation in an asphalt pavement. The size of the fracture process zone (FPZ) is a key factor in predicting failure and in selecting the geometry and dimensions of the test specimen. Furthermore, the process zone size is particularly useful in the numerical simulation of fracture using phenomenological and micromechanical models such as the cohesive zone model (CZM) [13]. Therefore, the experimental observation of the process zone size at a micro level is helpful in calibrating the phenomenological model and improving the accuracy of the simulation. As a well documented and widely used tool, acoustic emission (AE) methods can be used to characterize the microscopic fracture processes and therefore to evaluate damage growth in asphalt materials. This method was successfully applied in understanding the relation between the micro-structural events and the macroscopic performance for the asphalt materials [412]. In addition, this method was also employed by researchers to study the FPZ during fracture test for various materials.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 202 493 3089. E-mail address: xinjun.li@fhwa.dot.gov (X. Li). 0013-7944/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.engfracmech.2010.02.018

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Zietlow and Labuz [13] investigated the intrinsic process zone in rock materials using AE. Specimens from four different rock types with various grain sizes with a smooth boundary (no notch) were tested in three-point bending. The area that contains 90% of the events that occurred between the beginning of localization (determined to be at 98% load ratio) and snap-back was considered as the intrinsic process zone. The size of this process zone was found to vary signicantly with the grain size of the material. An approximately linear relation was found between the width of the process zone and the logarithm of the grain size. Otsuka and Date [14] investigated the behavior of the fracture process zone in concrete materials with various maximum aggregate size using X-rays and AE techniques. The energy of each individual AE event was calculated and the area of AE events where more than 95% of the total AE energy occurred before the peak load was referred to the fracture process zone. Research results showed that, as the loading increases, a zone consisting of numerous micro-cracks accompanied by AE events developed ahead of the notch tip in the specimen. It was also found that the width of the process zone increased with the increase of the maximum aggregate size, but the length of this zone decreased with the increase of the maximum aggregate size. The objective of this research is to investigate the size of the FPZ in asphalt mixtures at low temperatures. Seven asphalt mixtures combining different factors such as aggregate type, air voids and asphalt content were performed fracture testing at low temperature with the semi-circular bending (SCB) conguration. The fracture test was also performed using three different loading rates and three different notch lengths to evaluate the inuence of the loading rate and notch length. The fracture process of the SCB specimen was monitored using an AE system with eight channels of recording. The approach used by Otsuka and Date [14] was used in this research to determine the process zone in the fracture test. The effect of various factors on the FPZ was evaluated by comparing the size of the FPZ. The size of FPZ was also estimated with the CZM calibrated by the experimental data from SCB and indirect tension test (IDT). The FPZ obtained from the AE method was compared with that from the CZM method. 2. Laboratory experiment 2.1. Materials and sample preparation This study was designed to contain a combination of factors expected to have a signicant effect on the fracture properties of asphalt mixtures, and the test matrix is shown in Table 1. In this study, three asphalt binders with two performance grades (PG) 58-28 and 64-28 were used. PG 58-28 binder was plain, while PG 64-28 binder was plain or styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) modied. Two different types of aggregate, granite and limestone, known to have different mechanical and physical properties, were used to prepare the mixtures. The nominal maximum aggregate size is 12.5 mm. Two levels of air voids, the design value of 4% and 7% representing typical as-constructed values, were chosen to study the effect of air voids on fracture properties for further improvement in construction practice and performance prediction modeling. Two levels of asphalt content, the design value and the design value plus 0.5%, were selected to quantify the effect of binder content (and lm thickness) on the fracture properties. All mixtures were gyratory compacted using the Superpave design procedure outlined in SP-2 [15]. Table 1 identies all seven mixtures. The rst part of the identication is the high limit of the binder PG grade, while the second part represents the modication: P and S are plain and SBS, respectively. The third part is the air voids: 4% and 7%. The fourth part of the mixture identication is the aggregate type: G and L are granite and limestone, respectively. The fth part is present only for the mixtures with the design plus 0.5% asphalt content. For example, 58:P:4:G identies the mixture prepared with PG 58-28 plain binder, 4% air voids, granite aggregate and optimal design asphalt content. Two aggregate gradations were prepared based on the aggregate type and are shown in Table 2. These two gradations were prepared as close as practically possible in an effort to eliminate additional factors that can affect the results. Two design asphalt contents were used in the mix design: 6.0% for granite mixtures and 6.9% for limestone mixtures and correspond to an effective binder content of 5.39% and 5.37% for the granite and limestone mixtures, respectively. For all seven mixtures, cylindrical specimens with 150 mm in diameter and 177 mm in height were compacted using the Superpave gyratory compactor in the laboratory. The actual air voids for all mixtures are in the range of 1% target air voids. Each of the cylinders was cut symmetrically from the middle of the specimen into two SCB slices with 25 mm each in height.

Table 1 Mixture identication and factor combinations. Mixture ID Binder and modier Air voids 4% 58:P:4:G 58:P:4:G+0.5 58:P:4:L 58:P:4:L+0.5 58:P:7:L 64:P:4:L 64:S:4:L PG58-28 Plain X X X X X PG64-28 Plain PG64-28 SBS X X 7% Asphalt content Design X X X X X X X Design+0.5% Aggregate Granite X X X X X X X 6 18 30 Limestone Test temperature, C

X. Li, M. Marasteanu / Engineering Fracture Mechanics 77 (2010) 11751190 Table 2 Gradations for all mixtures. Sieve size (mm) Percent passing Granite 19 12.5 9.5 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.60 0.30 0.15 0.075 100 95.2 83.5 65.2 47.1 33.4 23.8 12.5 7.0 5.1

1177

Limestone 100 97.2 79.1 59.6 48.6 38.6 28.8 16.9 9.2 5.4

The SCB slice cut from cylinders was symmetrically cut into two semi-circular bend samples with an original notch with 15 mm in length and 2 mm in width. In order to investigate the inuence of the notch length on the fracture properties, specimens with two additional notch lengths of 5 mm and 30 mm were prepared for mixture 64:S:4:L. IDT specimens with 50 mm thick and 150 mm diameter were cut from the gyratory compacted cylinders for mixture 58:P:4:G+0.5. The three test temperatures were determined based on the PG low limit of the asphalt binder as follows: temperature level 1 (TL): 12 below TM; temperature level 2 (TM): binder PG + 10 C; temperature level 3 (TH): 12 above TM. In this study, for the PG -28 the temperatures are as follows: TL = 30 C, TM = 18 C, TH = 6 C. 2.2. Semi-circular bending test The SCB test setup is shown in Fig. 1. An MTS servo-hydraulic testing system was used to perform the tests. The samples were symmetrically supported by two xed rollers and had a span of 120 mm. Teon tape was used to reduce the friction from the two rollers. The indirect tension test loading plate was used to load the SCB specimens. The load line displacement (LLD) was measured using a vertically mounted Epsilon extensometer with 38 mm gauge length and 1 mm range; one end was mounted on a button that was permanently xed on a specially made frame, and the other end was attached to a metal button glued to the sample. Crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) was recorded by an Epsilon clip gauge with 10 mm gauges length and a +2.5 and 1 mm range. The clip gauge was attached at the bottom of the specimen. The CMOD signal was used as the control signal to maintain the test stability in the post-peak region of the test. A constant CMOD rate of 0.0005 mm/s was used and the load and LLD (Pu) were recorded. A maximum contact load of 0.3 kN was applied before the actual loading to ensure uniform contact between the loading plate and the specimen. Testing ceased when the load dropped to 0.5 kN in the post-peak region.

SCB
Button

LLD AE

Notch
AE Acquisition

CMOD Frame

Data Acquisition

Fig. 1. Schematic of experimental setup.

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All tests were performed inside an environmental chamber. Liquid nitrogen tanks were used to obtain the required low temperature. Prior to testing, the SCB samples were kept in the environmental chamber at the test temperature for 2 h to avoid any temperature gradient within the sample. The temperature was controlled by MTS temperature controller and veried using an independent platinum RTD thermometer. In order to study the inuence of loading rate upon the fracture properties, mixture 64:P:4:L was tested using two additional loading rate (0.00015 mm/s and 0.005 mm/s). In addition to a notch length of 15 mm, mixture 64:S:4:L was tested with two additional initial notch lengths of 5 mm and 30 mm to investigate the inuence of the initial notch length on the fracture properties. All these tests were performed with the same test procedure as described above. 2.3. Indirect tension (IDT) strength test The mixture 58:P:4:G+0.5 was also performed the IDT strength test to obtain the parameters for the numerical simulation. In the IDT test, a cylindrical specimen was loaded at TL(30 C) in compression across a diametral plane, similar to the splitting tension test, also known as the Brazilian test. The strength test determined the tensile strength of a specimen by loading the specimen at a constant rate of 12.5 mm/min until failure. The specimen dimensions and peak load were then used to calculate the failure strength. 2.4. AE testing During the SCB fracture testing, the AE event signals were recorded using four DAQ cards (Model PCI-5112, National Instruments). Each card had two independent channels which acquired AE signals detected by eight piezoelectric sensors (Model S9225, Physical Acoustics Corporation). Four sensors were mounted on each side of the specimen using M-Bond 200, a modied alkyl cyanoacrylate. The pre-amplication of the AE signals was provided by eight preampliers (Model 1220C, PAC) with a gain set to 40 dB. One of the sensors was used as a trigger, which was often the one closest to the tip of the initial notch. The trigger level was set at 10 mV in this research. Once the recording was triggered, signals were band-pass ltered (0.11.2 MHz) and sampled at 20 MHz over 200 ls. Considering the ringing of the resonant sensor, a sleep time of 9 ms between two consecutive events was prescribed during which the system could not be triggered. The velocity of propagation of the longitudinal waves was determined by generating an elastic wave by pencil lead (0.5 mm diameter) breakage on the opposite side of the samples. The source location of the AE events can be inferred by investigating the differences of the rst time of arrival among the transducers placed at different locations on the specimen. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the arrival time of the elastic waves for each sensor from the recorded AE event. This can be done by measuring the time at which the signal passes a preset threshold values for each sensor. An algorithm was developed successfully to calculate the AE event source and the test result from pencil lead breakage indicated an accuracy of 13 mm for travel distances around 100 mm. An acoustic emission is generated by the sudden release of energy from localized damage processes. The measurement of this energy release can thus be related to the fracture resistance of materials. The energy of an electrical signal is proportional to the square of the voltage [16,17] and can be computed using the following equation:

Ei

Z
0

t ae

V 2 t dt i

where Ei is the AE energy for channel i, Vi the recorded voltage transient for channel i, and tae is the duration of the event for channel i. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Mechanical testing results For the SCB fracture test, the load and the LLD were recorded and the data was used to plot the loaddisplacement curve. A typical plot of loading versus LLD for three test temperatures is shown in Fig. 2. All seven mixtures investigated exhibited a similar change in behavior with temperature and loading. At higher low temperature (TH), asphalt mixtures are more ductile and have lower peak loads and larger displacements. At the lowest temperature (TL), mixtures are brittle and have high peak loads, and small deformation ability. At the middle low temperature TM, mixtures exhibited an intermediate behavior between TH and TL. All mixtures also exhibited a similar trend in the recorded AE events. Limited events were recorded at the higher test temperature and the number of events increased signicantly at the lower test temperature. Specically, a number between 79 and 1008 events were recorded for all seven mixtures tested at 6 C, a number between 1008 and 3025 at 18 C, and events between 4275 and 6572 were recorded at 30 C. This can be explained by the fact that the asphalt binder displays viscous and ductile behaviors at higher temperatures and the development of defects is gradual and does not produce emissions that can be detected [4]. A representative plot of AE event with LLD is shown in Fig. 3.

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4.0

TL = -30 C
3.5 3.0

Load (kN)

2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.0

TM = -18 C TH = -6 C

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Load line displacement (mm)

Fig. 2. Typical plot of loading and load line displacement.

3.5 3.0 2.5

6000

5000

Load (kN)

2.0

3000
1.5

2000
1.0 0.5 0.0

1000

0.1

0.2

0.3

0 0.4

Loading Line Displacement (LLD) (mm)

Fig. 3. Typical plot for AE event and load with LLD.

It can be seen from the Fig. 3 that the occurrence of the event before 30% (1 kN) of peak load is negligible and there is very little change of the AE event accumulation curve. This illustrates that very little or no actual intrinsic damage occurs in this period. The slope of the event accumulation curve increases until the load approaches the peak load, indicating a faster micro-crack rate with load increase. The steepest slope in the event accumulation curve occurs between the peak load and around 50% (1.6 kN) of the peak load in the post-peak region, which indicates that the micro damage occurs very quickly. When the specimen is in the softening region due to the formation of the critical crack, the event occur rate decreases. The corresponding source location of the sample shown in Fig. 3 is given in Fig. 4 that plots the location for all recorded events. For the SCB specimen with initial notch, the crack initiated and propagated from the notch tip along the center line of the sample. It should be noted that in some specimens the distribution of the events is skewed to one side; this is most likely due to the non-homogeneity of the test specimens, although substantially more testing is required to validate this statement. 3.2. Fracture process zone (FPZ) size The approach used by Otsuka and Date [14] was also used in this research to investigate the process zone in the asphalt mixture specimen. The AE energy for each event was calculated as the integral of the signal amplitude square during the event duration. Most events had very little energy, which means that these events may contribute very little to the fracture

Event Count

4000

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75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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-5

Fig. 4. Typical location plot for all events.

of the material. To better understand the distribution of the AE energy during the loading process, it is desirable to setup energy levels and to investigate the distribution of the event number and of the energy sum for these levels. An example of the distribution of the event number and energy accumulation over the entire loading cycle with four energy levels is given in Table 3. The four energy levels expressed in relative units are as follows: E1 = 0.05, E2 = 0.60, E3 = 1.5 and E4 = 2.30. It can be seen that approximately 54% of all events have energy levels less than 0.05 relative units and contribute only 4.6% to the total AE energy, while 3.3% of all events have energy levels above 2.3 relative units and contribute about 40% of the total energy. From the previous analysis, AE energy release is associated with the initiation and propagation of the fracture. The distributions of the AE events and AE energy can be used to study the initiation and propagation of the micro-cracks and the formation of the fracture plane. The process zone of the material under the testing condition can also be estimated from the distribution of the AE energy for the AE events occurring before the peak load. Using the same four energy levels used for Table 3, the distribution of the event count and energy accumulation before peak load is computed and shown in Table 4. The source location of these events is shown in Figs. 58. Fig. 5 shows the source location for the events with AE energy higher than E4, and Figs. 68 show the source location of events with AE energy higher than E3, E2 and E1, respectively. The above gures indicate that the higher energy events tend to localize near the neutral line within the specimen where the ultimate fracture area is formed. As a result, it was considered that these events are related directly to the fracture of the asphalt mixture and this area, in which approximately 95% of the total AE energy sum before peak load is released, can be assumed as a fracture process zone. A rectangle, as contains 90% of these events, was drawn to represent the fracture process zone determined by this method. For the asphalt mixture from 58:P:4:G+0.5 tested at 30 C and shown above, the fracture process zone is about 58 mm in width and 3035 mm in length.

Table 3 Event number and energy distribution with energy levels for the entire loading process. Event count >E4 >E3 >E2 >E1 <E1 Total 187 320 667 2595 3093 5688 % of total event count 3.3 5.6 11.7 45.6 54.4 100 Energy sum, relative unit 662.4 912.6 1248 1609.2 57.6 1666.8 % of total energy sum 39.7 54.8 74.9 96.5 4.6 100

Table 4 Before peak load event number and energy distribution with energy levels. Event count >E4 >E3 >E2 >E1 <E1 Total 17 31 78 336 3093 5688 % of total event count 2.1 4.0 10.0 43.0 54.4 100 Energy sum, relative unit 64.5 90.9 135.1 183.3 57.6 1666.8 % of total energy sum 33.7 47.5 70.6 95.8 4.6 100

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Fig. 5. Location of events with AE energy levels >E4 that represents 34% of the energy sum before peak load.

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Fig. 6. Location of events with AE energy levels >E3 that represents 48% of the energy sum before peak load.

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Fig. 7. Location of events with AE energy levels >E2 that represents 71% of the energy sum before peak load.

It is noted that the process zone reported in this research is relatively large compared to the ligament in the SCB specimen. More research is therefore needed to further validate the ndings of this study by testing specimens with much larger fracture ligaments. 3.3. Effect of factors on process zone size It is generally agreed that as a material parameter, the size of fracture process zone may be dictated by many factors such as the inhomogeneities due to the grain size and preexisting cracks or voids in the material. Therefore, the identication and

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Process Zone

75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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-5

Fig. 8. Location of events with AE energy levels >E1 that represents 95% of the energy sum before peak load.

evaluation of the factors signicantly affecting the characteristics of this localized zone are of importance in predicting failure and in selecting the geometry and dimensions of the standard test specimen. Under the method discussed above, the fracture process zone is assumed to be the zone located by the AE events corresponding to 95% AE energy before peak load. With this approach, the process zone size is obtained for mixtures with different factors such as aggregate type, asphalt content, air voids and different loading conditions and initial notch length to investigate their effects on the size of this zone. 3.3.1. Effect of temperature on FPZ size It is well recognized that asphalt mixtures are very temperature dependent materials. Temperature plays a signicant role with respect to the behavior of the asphalt materials. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate the effect of temperature on the fracture process zone size. Two typical plots that represent the FPZ at two different temperatures, the TM and TL, are shown in Figs. 9 and 10 for mixture 58:P:4:G+0.5. At the highest temperature (TH) very limited events were recorded and the FPZ could not be determined. The comparison of the FPZ for the two temperature levels shows that there is no obvious difference with the width but the process zone is about 8 mm shorter at the temperature level TM than at the temperature level TL. This is unexpected considering the development of FPZ is an energy dissipation zone and it is responsible for an increase in toughness at a lower temperature when the material is more brittle. One possible explanation for this unexpected behavior can be the fact that the asphalt material is more viscous and ductile at higher temperatures and the development of defects is gradual and does not produce emissions that can be detected. This also explains the fact that substantially more AE events were recorded at TL that at TM, as is shown in previous section. Due to the unexpected results for different temperatures, the comparison and discussion in the following sections are under the same and lowest temperature TL(30 C), at which the asphalt materials are considered to be very brittle. 3.3.2. Effect of aggregate on FPZ size Two aggregates were evaluated in this research: granite and limestone. The plots shown as Figs. 10 and 11 represent the FPZ for two mixtures prepared with granite and limestone, respectively. Fig. 10 represents mixture 58:P:4:G+0.5, while
75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Process Zone

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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Fig. 9. Process zone for 58:P:4:G+0.5 at TM.

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Process Zone

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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Fig. 10. Process zone for 58:P:4:G+0.5 at TL.

Fig. 11 represents mixture 58:P:4:L+0.5. The comparison of the FPZ size shows that the lengths of the FPZ from these two mixtures are very close. However, the FPZ of the mixture prepared with limestone is approximately 5 mm wider than that of the mixture with granite. The narrower FPZ from the mixture with granite aggregate means that the micro-cracking occurred in a smaller area ahead the preexisting crack tip before the crack began to propagate. Differences between the two aggregate types are also found from both tests by visual inspection of the fracture surface after testing, as shown in Fig. 12. No obvious difference was observed between the fracture surfaces at the high temperature. However, at the two lower temperatures, visual observations indicate that a signicant portion of the fracture passes through the aggregate particles in the limestone mixture while the crack passes through the interface between the mastic and the aggregate in the granite mixture. This indicates that the granite aggregate has a greater crack resistance at lower temperatures than does the limestone aggregate.

3.3.3. Effect of air voids on FPZ size It is believed, but not well-documented, that the air voids in the asphalt mixtures is one of a major factors that affect the size of the FPZ. Figs. 13 and 14 plot the FPZ for the 4% air voids and 7% air voids, respectively. The comparison result shows that the mixture with 7% air voids has a much bigger FPZ than the mixture with 4% air voids. This illustrates that the microcracking occurred in a much bigger area ahead the crack tip in the mixture with more air voids before the peak load. In other words, the material with higher air voids was more damaged at the micro scale level due to higher air voids.

3.3.4. Effects of asphalt content on FPZ size The comparison of the FPZ for the mixtures with two different asphalt contents was also performed in this research. Fig. 15 plots the FPZ for mixture prepared with the optimum asphalt content, while Fig. 10 is the plot for mixture with the optimum asphalt content plus 0.5%. It can be seen that there is no obvious difference in the FPZ size between the two asphalt contents.

75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Process Zone

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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-5

Fig. 11. Process zone for 58:P:4:L+0.5 at TL.

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Fig. 12. Typical fracture surfaces for mixtures with different aggregate.

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Fig. 13. Process zone for 58:P:4:L at TL.

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Process Zone

Notch
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Fig. 14. Process zone for 58:P:7:L at TL.

3.3.5. Effect of loading rate on FPZ size In order to investigate the inuence of the loading rate on the FPZ size, the gures that plot the FPZ for the three loading rates studied in this research are shown in Figs. 1618. These three gures show the result for three CMOD rates, 0.00015 mm/s, 0.0005 mm/s and 0.005 mm/s, respectively. The data in these gures is from mixture 64:P:4:L and at the temperature level TL.

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Notch
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Fig. 15. Process zone for 58:P:4:G at TL.

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Process Zone

Notch
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Fig. 16. Process zone for 64:P:4:L at TL and loading rate of 0.00015 mm/s.

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Process Zone

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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-5

Fig. 17. Process zone for 64:P:4:L at TL and loading rate of 0.0005 mm/s.

The recorded event number is signicantly different for different loading rate at the lowest temperature level. Slower loading rate resulted in longer testing time and more AE events were collected. However, no obvious difference with the FPZ size can be observed from the testing data. The limited data obtained in this study appears to conrm the conclusion that the fracture process zone is a property of the material. However, substantially more testing is required to validate this statement.

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75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Process Zone

Notch
5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75

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-5

Fig. 18. Process zone for 64:P:4:L at TL and loading rate of 0.005 mm/s.

3.3.6. Effect of notch length on the FPZ size The fracture process zone for the samples with different initial notch lengths was also investigated. Figs. 1921 represent the FPZ at the temperature level TL for notch length of 5 mm, 15 mm and 30 mm, respectively. The results show that there is no obvious difference in the width of the FPZ for all three different notch lengths. However, the length of the FPZ signicantly changes with the notch length. The general trend is the shorter notch length, the longer FPZ. Specically, the length of the FPZ for the sample with 5 mm notch length is around 47 mm, 40 mm for the sample with

75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Process Zone

Notch
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Fig. 19. Process zone for 64:S:4:L at TL and 5 mm notch length.

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Notch
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Fig. 20. Process zone for 64:S:4:L at TL and 15 mm notch length.

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65

75

Fig. 21. Process zone for 64:S:4:L at TL and 30 mm notch length.

15 mm notch length, and 25 mm for the sample with 30 mm notch length. It should be noted that the length of the FPZ is large compared to the specimen ligament, especially for the geometry with 30 mm long notch, and therefore testing on specimens with much larger ligaments is necessary for further study.

4. Numerical simulation of FPZ 4.1. Cohesive zone model Cohesive zone model (CZM) has been constructed based on the LeonovPanasyuk [18]Dugdale model [19] and are successfully applied to simulating the fracture behavior of various engineering materials. Just as in the LeonovPanasyukDugdale model, so in the cohesive zone model, only an additional parameter characterizing the length of the plasticity zone or that of the cohesive zone, was introduced. Using information of fractal fracture in the cohesive zone model [20] does not affect the fact of the matter because only the cohesive zone length increases and no other parameter is introduced. The LeonovPanasyukDugdale model, as well as the cohesive zone model use Khristianovichs hypothesis [21], as is concerned with the absence of singularity at the crack tip. The classical fracture mechanics can not handle innitely large magnitudes. When this hypothesis is used, all solutions comprising singularity are excluded from consideration. However, if one uses the NeuberNovozhilov approach [22,23], then the class of solutions for solid with a structure can be extended if the integrable singularity is present. Following the NeuberNovozhilov approach, Kornev [24,25] proposed some new model which extended the class of solutions and used both the length and width for description of the process zone. Since the cohesive crack concept was proposed, large amount of literatures on the application of CZM have been accumulated. Needleman [26] developed an interface element to implement the cohesive zone into nite element computation frame. In asphalt area, Souza et al. [27] applied the cohesive zone model to predicting the damage evolution in an indirect tension test (IDT) specimen of viscoelastic asphalt mixture, and Paulino et al. [2] modeled the fracture behavior of a simply supported beam. Li and Marasteanu [3] have applied the cohesive zone model to a semi-circular bend (SCB) specimen and extensively investigated the low temperature cracking of asphalt mixtures. An algorithm has been developed to calibrate the CZM specically for the tested asphalt mixture and the numerical simulation has shown good agreements with experimental data. In the concept of a cohesive crack, the physical fracture is ideally localized into a small zone dened by two imaginary surfaces and the bulk material outside this zone is still undamaged. The traction can be transferred across these two surfaces. Once the traction at certain location (point A) along the cohesive crack exceeds the prescribed threshold, these two surfaces start to open and crack initiates at point A numerically. The damage is considered to start accumulating at point A. However, point A does not correspond to the physical crack tip, where no or negligible traction could be transferred across the crack. Therefore, point A should only be related to the nucleation of micro-crack and the softening of material. As load increases, the separation increases and the traction decreases and nally vanish at point A. This time point A can indeed be deemed as the physical crack tip at which no traction should be transferred. At the same time, there is a point B along the cohesive crack and some distance away from point A has just reached the prescribed threshold and start softening due to micro-cracking. The range between points A and B along the cohesive crack corresponds to a zone full of micro-cracks but not complete separation, which meets the denition of FPZ of a crack. Three material parameters, cohesive energy potential (U), traction (T) or cohesive strength (r) and separation (D) of the two virtual surfaces or separation displacement (d) are needed for the CZM. The traction, as acting on the crack surfaces, changes non-linearly with the change of the separation of the two virtual surfaces and the three parameters are related in the form

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@U @D

It should be noted that only two of the three parameters are independent. The traction and separation of the crack are difcult parameters to measure and are therefore usually obtained from mathematical formulations. The TD curves were described by various functions including exponential, polynomial and bilinear forms. In this research, an exponential form of the cohesive energy potential is used to describe the non-linear behavior of the asphalt material in the form

T exp1T 0

  D D exp Dc Dc

where T0 and Dc are the peak traction of the material and the critical normal separation when the normal traction is equal to T0, respectively. The implementation of an exponential CZM is shown in Fig. 22. It should be noted that the traction and separation are normalized by T0 and Dc, respectively. The cohesive crack is implemented into nite element analysis through a zero-thickness interface element. A 2-D four-node interface element was formulated. The model using this interface element was tested by the analytical solutions on an elastic double cantilever beam. The details are referred to Li and Marasteanu [3].

4.2. Simulation results In the cohesive zone model, three materials parameters were used: the fracture energy, the peak traction and the critical separation corresponding to the peak traction. Given any two of them, the third parameter can be derived. The fracture energy was calculated from the SCB test using the RILEM (Runion Internationale des Laboratoires et Experts des Matriaux) Technical Committee TC 50-FMC method [28]. The peak traction is related to material tensile strength, while the critical separation could not be measured. To better present the fracture behavior in asphalt materials, the CZM parameters were calibrated with respect to the experimental data. Since the peak traction is related to material strength, which can be estimated from the IDT, it is more convenient to calibrate the peak traction than the characteristic separation. In this study, only one mixture, 58:P:4:G+0.5, was simulated at the lowest temperature of 30 C. Tensile strength and modulus was calculated from the IDT strength test as 20 GPa and 4.99 MPa, respectively. The fracture energy was calculated from the SCB test as 555 J/m2. The peak traction was varied with the xed fracture energy from experiments and the simulated loaddisplacement curve was compared to the experimental one. The closest comparison resulted in the best calibration of the CZM. As shown in Fig. 23, the simulated and experimental determined loaddisplacement curves agree very well. As the result, the calibrated traction was 60% of the tensile strength measured with IDT test. The tractions along the whole cohesive crack were monitored during the entire fracture process. When the traction at the initial crack tip increased to the peak traction and then decreased to 10% of this value, the distance between the initial crack tip and the point at which the traction equals to the peak traction was measured and considered as the length of FPZ. The data showed the simulated FPZ was 34.8 mm long, while the experimental determined FPZ was 33 mm long based on AE energy method.

(a)
Cohesive Zone

(b) 1.2
1.0

N ormalized Traction

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2

Crack Tip Traction

0.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Normalized Separation

Fig. 22. (a) Concept of cohesive fracture at a crack tip and (b) exponential traction-separation relationship for cohesive crack.

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140 120 100

Experiment Simulation

Load (N/mm)

80 60 40 20 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

Displacement (mm)
Fig. 23. Experimental and simulated loaddisplacement curve from a SCB test.

4.3. Discussion The numerically determined FPZ reasonably agreed with the experimental determined FPZ. This indicated that the calibrated CZM can predict not only the loaddisplacement curve, but also the size of FPZ. The consistency of CZM in estimating two aspects of fracture behavior approves the effectiveness of CZM in describing the essence of fracture phenomenon and validates the calibration procedure of CZM parameters. However, the discrepancy exists between the simulation and experiment. This can be partly explained from two aspects. First, the numerical simulation can only provide the results at the end of each step. The simulated length of FPZ is then affected by the step length and the size of the mesh. Smaller step and ner mesh are expected to lead to more accurate simulated length. Second, given the concept of CZM, there is no thickness of a cohesive zone and thus all physical fracture should be concentrated only along the crack. Obviously, this is not completely true. From the location of micro-cracks located by AE technique, the physical fracture was distributed within a band around of the macro-crack instead of a non-thickness line. Consequently, the FPZ should have certain width as shown in the experimental data. However, this feature cannot be effectively described by the CZM. Finally, the size of FPZ was around 30 mm from both experiment and numerical computation. Compared with the dimensions of most geometries employed in fracture tests in asphalt materials, e.g. the single edge notched beam, the compact tension disc, and the IDT specimen, this FPZ is large enough to invalidate the direct application of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). It should be cautious to explain LEFM results and it is necessary to employ non-linear fracture mechanics and investigate the size effect on the determination of fracture resistance of asphalt mixtures in laboratory, as shown by Wagoner and Buttlar [29]. 5. Summary and conclusions The fracture process zone, a key factor in predicting failure and in selecting the geometry and dimensions of the test specimen, was investigated in asphalt mixtures at low temperature. Seven asphalt mixtures combining different factors such as aggregate type, asphalt content and air voids were performed fracture testing at three low temperatures using the SCB geometry. The effects of the initial notch length and the loading rate on the fracture properties were also investigated. An acoustic emission system with eight channels of recording was used to monitor the failure process during the fracture testing. The experimental data shows that test temperature strongly affects the behavior of the asphalt mixture. The amount of recorded AE event signicantly increases when the temperature decreases. The AE occurrence rate was also found to vary with the loading during test procedure, in which the period between the peak load and around 50% of the peak load in the post-peak region has the fastest micro-cracking occurrence rate. The analysis on the AE event energy distribution shows that most events contribute negligibly to the total energy while a small number of events make signicant contribution. The fracture process zone was obtained using the event locations that corresponds to 95% of total AE energy before peak. The experimental data obtained in this study illustrates that the fracture process zone at a lower temperature is longer than that at a higher temperature, while there is no signicant difference in the width. This is unexpected and is possibly due to the viscous nature of asphalt material at higher temperature. Asphalt mixture with limestone was found to have an obviously wider FPZ than that from mixture with granite. The mixture with 7% air

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voids was found to have substantially bigger FPZ than the mixture with 4% air voids. No obvious difference was found for the mixtures with the two asphalt contents investigated in this research. The three loading rates employed in this study were found to produce very close FPZ, both for the width and length. No obvious difference was observed on the width of the FPZ for the three different initial notch lengths. However, it was found that the length of the FPZ signicantly increases with the decrease of the notch length. The cohesive zone model was applied to simulating the fracture behavior and estimating the size of FPZ for one case. It was found that the numerically determined FPZ shows reasonable agreement with experimentally determined FPZ. The calibrated CZM cannot only predict the loaddisplacement curve, but also estimate the size of FPZ. This consistent effectiveness in describing two different aspects of fracture behavior validates the calibration procedure for CZM parameters. The limitation of CZM and the numerical simulation determines the discrepancy between the numerically and experimentally determined FPZ. It also should be noted that the process zone reported in this research is relatively large compared to the ligament in the SCB specimen. More research is therefore needed to further validate the ndings of this study by testing specimens with much larger fracture ligaments. Acknowledgements This research was conducted at the University of Minnesota and was sponsored by Federal Highway Administration National Pooled Fund Study 776. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are also grateful with Dr. Xue Lis help in the numerical simulation. References
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