Unified Construction of Dynamic Rheological Master Curve of Asphalts and Asphalt Mixtures

To completely investigate the physical properties of asphalt pavement materials, their viscoelastic master curves are generated using the least squares Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) method based on the time temperature superposition principle. In this study, the limitation of obtaining the viscoelastic master curves of the four asphalts and their asphalt mixtures considered herein using Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF) and Arrhenius equations is analyzed. Next, that the asphalts and asphalt mixtures belong to the category of simple thermo-rheological materials is verified by conducting through the dynamic frequency sweep test. It is found that the master curves of these asphalt pavement materials generated by the least squares L-M method are in good agreement with those obtained by applying the WLF equation at moderate and high temperature. The results show that the least squares L-M method is superior to the other methods examined herein for deriving the master curves of asphalt pavement materials within the operating temperature range. Additionally, it is a reasonable and effective way to generate a master curve and provides a theoretical reference for the comprehensive study of asphalt pavement materials.