Applying fundamental materials engineering to solve pavement infrastructure problems

Fundamental material and engineering properties of asphalt mixture components can be used to evaluate the performance of asphalt mixtures and to form the baseline by which to understand the fundamental mechanisms of damage. This paper illustrates how two material properties, surface free energy (SFE) and molecular properties of the asphalt binder (e.g., shape and size), are used to understand and assist in the performance modeling of the fatigue damage process including the balance between crack propagation during loading and crack healing during rest periods. The paper also explains how SFE can be used to select asphalt Mixture components (aggregate and asphalt binder) that are the most compatible with each other among the available candidates so that the resulting mixture will have the highest probability to resist moisture damage.