Evaluation of pavement response and performance under different scales of APT facilities

This paper focuses on comparative evaluation of pavement responses and performance under accelerated loading facility (ALF), Model Mobile Load Simulator 3(MMLS 3) and Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) tests, in terms of rut depth, strain response, seismic stiffness and contact stress. Test slabs extracted from the ALF test lanes were trafficked with the MMLS3 under comparable environmental conditions at a laboratory in Virginia Tech. Some small specimens were cut from the slab for APA tests at VTRC. It is found that the monitored parameters yielded by the MMLS 3 test were comparable to the related full-scale ALF test results in terms of intrinsic material characteristics and pavement performance. It is concluded that MMLS 3 is an effective, economic and reliable trafficking tool to characterise rutting and fatigue performance of pavement materials with due regard to the relative structures. The APA test is not suitable to assess the fatigue resistance of pavement material, but is an efficient and effective method to rank rutting resistance of asphalt mixtures. The MMLS 3 test can be employed as the screen testing for establishing full-scale testing protocols as desired or required, which will significantly enhance economics of APT testing.