Application of Automated Non-contact Resonance Testing for Low Temperature Behavior of Asphalt Concrete

Abstract: Impact resonance testing is a well-documented non-destructive testing method and its applications on asphalt concrete have also been implemented successfully. The test is carried out manually by inducing an impact in order to excite the test specimen and taking measurements of the vibrational response. In an effort to improve the manual procedure of impact resonance testing, an automated non-contact methodology is developed and its applicability with regards to low temperature behaviors of asphalt concrete is investigated. Results from this work show that repeatable fundamental resonance frequency measurements can be performed on a disc shaped specimen in an automated manner without the need to open the thermal chamber. The measurements obtained from the new method have been verified by taking similar resonance frequency measurements using an instrumented impact hammer. It has also been shown in this work that the proposed method is suitable to investigate the lone effects of cyclic thermal conditioning on asphalt concrete without any other possible biasing effects associated with contact in the conventional testing. A hysteretic behavior of stiffness modulus is obtained on three different asphalt concrete specimens subjected to repeated low temperature cyclic conditioning. Reduced modulus values at each temperature are obtained in all the tested specimens after a low temperature stepwise conditioning at temperatures from 0oC to -40 oC. This observed behavior shows that the dynamic modulus of the tested specimens is affected by low temperature conditioning. The norm of the complex modulus decreases and the phase angle or damping ratio increases after low temperature conditioning. Hence, valuable and practical low temperature characteristics of different asphalt concrete mixtures can possibly be obtained by using the proposed methodology.