Journal of Testing and Evaluation

doi:10.1520/JTE20150220 / Vol. 44 / No. 2 / March 2016 / available online at www.astm.org

Junhui Zhang,1 Liangliang Dai,2 Jianlong Zheng,2 and Houxuan Wu3

Reflective Crack Propagation and Control

in Asphalt Pavement Widening

Reference
Zhang, J., Dai, L., Zheng, J., and Wu, H., “Reflective Crack Propagation and Control in Asphalt Pavement
Widening,” Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2016, pp. 838–846, doi:10.1520/
JTE20150220. ISSN 0090-3973

ABSTRACT
Manuscript received May 26, 2015; To investigate the reflective crack-propagation behavior and provide control techniques for
accepted for publication July 28, 2015;
asphalt pavements widening, the finite-element models were built to simulate the widened
published online September 1, 2015.
asphalt pavement with a latent joint. The developed finite-element model considered the
1
School of Traffic and Transportation
influence factors, including the loading modes (i.e., the symmetrical and unsymmetrical
Engineering, Changsha Univ. of Science
and Technology, Changsha 410114, loading modes), the thickness and modulus of the asphalt concrete surface, the modulus of
China (Corresponding author), the new and existing stabilized bases, and the sheet stiffness of the reinforced geosynthetic.
e-mail: [email protected]
The finite-element simulation results show that increasing the thickness or reducing the
2
School of Traffic and Transportation modulus of the asphalt concrete surface effectively delays the propagation speed of the
Engineering, Changsha Univ. of Science
and Technology, Changsha 410114, China. reflective cracks. The cracking potential reaches the minimum when the new and existing
3
bases have a uniform modulus. Additionally, geosynthetic reinforcement across the joints
Jiangxi Ganyue Expressway Co. Ltd,
Nanchang 330029, China. significantly reduces the stress concentration around the crack tip and slows down the
propagation of the reflective cracks. These benefits become greater when increasing the
sheet stiffness of the geosynthetic. Finally, an experimental study was conducted to
investigate the influence of the types of the asphalt overlay and the geosynthetic
reinforcement on the reflective crack-propagation behavior. The experimental results
indicate that the geosynthetic-reinforced structure with a lower modulus of the asphalt
concrete surface significantly increases the fatigue life of widened pavements, and the
polypropylene geotextile performs better than the glass-fiber grid in terms of the extension
of the fatigue life.

Keywords
asphalt pavement widening, reflective crack propagation, stress-intensity factors, geosynthetics

Copyright V
C 2015 by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959. 838
 ZHANG ET AL. ON ASPHALT PAVEMENT WIDENING 839

Introduction FIG. 2 Illustration of reflective cracks in asphalt pavement.

Currently, there are 111,950 km of expressways built in China.
With the rapid increase of the traffic volume, more and more
existing four-lane expressways cannot meet the increasing
requirements, which need to be widened to six lanes or more. An
investigation shows that expressways over 6000 km are widening
or have been widened, and about 1000 km expressway-widening
projects were planned, as shown in Fig. 1. More and more
expressways are predicted to be broadened in the near future in
China. For an expressway widening, the existing asphalt pave-
ment surface is usually milled off and then a fresh asphalt mix-
ture is paved across the new and existing bases. There is always a
joint between the existing and new bases, which can propagate
upward under the repeated traffic loading and eventually results
in reflective cracks in the asphalt surface, as shown in Fig. 2. This
type of reflective cracks is the primary distress in an asphalt
pavement widening [1]. Meanwhile, the joint between the exist- Regarding crack propagation in asphalt pavements, many
ing and new bases is also the place where the maximum differen- researchers have made many achievements by different analysis
tial settlement between the existing and new embankments methods. Lytton [6], Phipps et al. [7], Mobasher et al. [8], Gou-
occurs [2], which will further accelerate the crack propagation. lias and Ishai [9], Cleveland et al. [10], Sobhan and Tandon
Accordingly, to delay reflective cracks propagation in asphalt [11], Virgili et al. [12], de Souza Correia and de Souza Bueno
pavement widening, the methods to decrease the differential set- [13], Im et al. [14], and Fereidoon et al. [15] constructed labora-
tlement of the new and existing embankments and improve the tory tests to investigate the effects of geosynthetics to retard
capacity of the pavements to resist cracking should be used. reflective cracking through asphaltic concrete overlays. They all
Regarding the differential settlement control of the new and pointed out that it is effective to use geosynthetics to control
existing embankments, Zhang and Zheng [3] pointed out that reflective cracks, and different types of geosynthetic have a dif-
composite foundations under the new embankment should be ferent delaying effect. In addition, Birgisson et al. [16], Seong
used regardless of the treatment methods of existing founda- et al. [17], Wang et al. [18], Wang and Wang [19] and Luo et al.
tions. Zhang and Huang [4] and Huang and Wang [5] verified [20] analyzed the crack propagation in asphalt pavements or
the effect of the geosynthetics and recommended the structure beams using numerical simulation or analytical methods. How-
of reinforced embankments. Van Meurs et al. [1] put forward ever, these researches above focused on the crack-propagation
an optimized filling procedure of the new embankment. The properties of asphalt mixtures or geosynthetic-reinforced
above techniques have been validated to be effective by a lot of asphalt overlays over jointed PCC (Portland cement concrete)
projects to control the differential settlement of widening pavement. Few studies were paid attention to crack propagation
projects. of pavement widened. For an asphalt pavement-widening pro-
ject, the stiffness of the new base can be designed earlier and
maybe not be equal to that of the existing base. Accordingly, the
FIG. 1 Expressway-widening projects in China. crack-propagation mechanism of pavement widened should be
different from that of the overlays with a uniform base on the
jointed PCC, which draws less attention currently.
The objectives of this study are to investigate the crack-
propagation behavior of the asphalt pavement widening, and to
provide suggestions to control the pavement cracking. A finite-
element model of an asphalt pavement widening with a latent
joint was developed using the finite-element software ABAQUS
based on the linear elastic fracture mechanics. The effects of the
factors, such as the loading modes, the modulus and thickness
of the asphalt concrete surface, the modulus of the new and
existing bases, and the types of geosynthetics, on the reflective
crack propagation were analyzed. Finally, an experimental study
was conducted to investigate the influence of the types of
840 Journal of Testing and Evaluation

TABLE 1 Pavement structures for one pavement-widening project.

FIG. 4 Drill hole and latent joint.
Existing Pavement New Pavement

Layer Material Thickness/cm Material Thickness/cm

Surface Top surface AC-13 4 AC-13 4
Intermediate AC-20 5 AC-20 6
surface
Down surface AC-25 6 AC-25 8
Base CSM 25 CSM 40
Subbase UM 26 UM 20

Note: AC, CSM, and UM denote the asphalt concrete, cement stabilized
macadam, and unbound macadam, respectively. Number behind AC and
SMA of 13, 20, and 25 denote the aggregate size.

asphalt overlay and geosynthetic reinforcement on the reflective

crack propagation.
Numerical Simulation
Problem Statement NUMERICAL MODELING
The expressway widening from Nanchang to Zhangshu (NZ To analyze crack propagation of an asphalt pavement widening,
expressway widening, as shown in Fig. 1) is the first widening a numerical model, which was in terms of linear elastic fracture
project in Jiangxi Province, which was built 17 years ago and mechanics, was built using ABAQUS according to the above
broadened from a four-lane expressway to an eight-lane problem description, as shown in Fig. 5. The existing pavement
expressway in 2014. To improve the performance of the top sur- was considered as the base of the new surface. As in many
face, a new surface with a thickness of 18 cm divided into three pavement-related studies, the plane strain conditions were
layers as AC-13, AC-20, and AC-25 was paved over the existing assumed. A fixed subgrade bottom, zero horizontal displace-
and new lanes after the necessary repairs of the existing pave- ment for the right and left boundaries of the base, subbase, and
ment. The existing and new pavement structures are shown in subgrade were assumed. The pavement structures were assumed
Table 1. Many steps were excavated to enhance the combination to be perfectly bonded and described by elements with four-
of the existing and new pavement structures, as shown in Fig. 3. node bilinear displacement and reduced integration with hour-
After the compaction of the new base, core samples across the glass control (CPE4R). The reinforcement was simulated using
existing pavement and new base were drilled, as shown in Fig. 4. two-node non-compression bar elements with linear elastic
It can be seen from Fig. 4 that there is a latent joint, which can properties (T2D2). Under a relatively small deformation, the
propagate upward to the surface under the repeated traffic load- influences of interface behaviors between reinforcements and
ing, and then reflective cracks appear, as shown in Fig. 2. pavement structures are expected to be less important [21].
Accordingly, a numerical simulation and an experimental study They were assumed to be fully bonded for simplicity using the
were conducted in the following sections to investigate the keywords “embedded element.” A crack in a two-dimensional
reflective crack-propagation properties and provide suggestions. model is a region containing edges that are free to move apart.
The term “seam” to define an edge was used to simulate the
crack, which originally closes and then opens when loaded.
FIG. 3 Steps of the existing pavement. ABAQUS/CAE places overlapping duplicate nodes along a

FIG. 5 Pavement widening and simplified model.

 ZHANG ET AL. ON ASPHALT PAVEMENT WIDENING 841

were 0.2, 0.5, 2, and 5. Different ratios of the depth of the crack
FIG. 6 Loading modes. and thickness of the surface, C/T, of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8, other
values of modulus and thicknesses of the surface of 1000 MPa,
1400 MPa, 1600 MPa, 1800 MPa and 14 cm, 16 cm, 20 cm were
also considered during this simulation.

Numerical Results and Analysis

According to opinions of the linear elastic fracture mechanics,
crack propagation has three kinds of displacement modes:
open mode (type I), shearing mode (type II), and tearing mode
(type III) [22]. Three stress-intensity factors of K1, K2, and K3
are corresponding to these kinds of displacement modes,
seam when the mesh is generated. Its crack properties were
respectively, which reflect the intensity of the stress field around
determined using contour integral analysis. Moreover, singular-
the crack tip. In terms of the algorithm of ABAQUS, a negative
ity at the crack tip was considered during the analysis.
value of K1 indicates a closed crack. Because the results of K1
are negative in this study, cracking of a pavement widening was
MODES OF TRAFFIC LOAD caused by shear stress [23]. Accordingly, only the stress-
Though the joint is located between two lanes and traffic loads intensity factor of K2 was calculated during the following analy-
are not likely right above the joint, two critical conditions of a sis. The positive value of K2 only indicates the displacement of
symmetrical and unsymmetrical load applied on the asphalt crack propagation is positive in the local coordinate system and
surface, as shown in Fig. 6, were taken into account. Based on vice versa. Therefore, the absolute value of K2 can be used to
the standard design load in China, the magnitude of the compare the cracking potential.
assigned load pressure is 0.7 MPa, and the contact area was a
square with the dimensions of 30 cm  30 cm. The “y” axle
INFLUENCE OF SURFACE MODULUS AND THICKNESS
points to the depth of pavement. T and C in Fig. 6 represent the
Fig. 7 presents K2 with different surface modulus under the
thickness of the surface and depth of the crack, respectively.
symmetrical and unsymmetrical loading. It can be seen from
Fig. 7 that the absolute value of K2 increases with the increase of
PARAMETERS OF MATERIAL AND SIMULATION SCHEMES surface modulus and the values of C/T. Therefore, the methods
Two parameters, Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio, are of decreasing the surface modulus, such as using polymer-
needed to completely describe the mechanical properties of the modified asphalt concrete or rubber asphalt concrete, can delay
materials simulated in this study. To analyze the influence fac- crack propagation and increase the fatigue life of a widened
tors of crack propagation, a control pavement structure was pavement [18]. In addition, the increasing rates of K2 with the
built, which is shown in Table 2. When the effects of one param- increase of surface modulus are nearly equal under the symmet-
eter are studied, other parameters are set as the reference values. rical loading, which become larger under the unsymmetrical
Three values of the tensile stiffness, JG, which is defined as loading. Meanwhile, the absolute of K2 under the unsymmetri-
the tensile force per unit width divided by the average strain, of cal load is much greater than that under the symmetrical load.
0, 400 kN/m and 1600 kN/m were set. JG ¼ 0 means there is no This is because the shear stress at the crack tip is very small
reinforcement in use. The Poisson’s ratio of reinforcements was under the symmetrical loading, which is not zero in terms of
0.18. Five modulus of the new base of 300 MPa, 750 MPa, the unsymmetrical calculation model in Fig. 5. It can be con-
1500 MPa, 3000 MPa, and 7500 MPa were calculated to investi- cluded that the unsymmetrical loading is more critical to the
gate the effects of the new base on crack propagation. The cor- propagation of reflective cracks.
responding ratios of the modulus of the new and existing bases As shown in Fig. 7, the absolute value of K2 under the
symmetrical loading is much smaller than that under the
TABLE 2 Calculation parameters of reference pavement structure. unsymmetrical loading. Fig. 8 only shows K2 with the surface
Variables and Value thickness under the unsymmetrical loading. It can be seen from
Fig. 8 that the increasing surface thickness can decrease the
Layer Modulus/MPa Thickness/cm Poisson’s Ratio
absolute value of K2. At the initial cracking stage, the variation
Surface 1200 18 0.25
of surface thickness has a much greater effect on K2, whereas
Base 1500 40 0.25
the values of K2 of different surface thicknesses are almost equal
Subbase 300 20 0.25
at the later stage. Therefore, the cracking potential reduces
Subgrade 40 400 0.35
with the increasing surface thickness and this effect decreases
842 Journal of Testing and Evaluation

FIG. 7 Curves of K2 with different surface modulus: (a) symmetrical loading, and (b) unsymmetrical loading.

gradually with crack propagation. In addition, the absolute value for different moduli of the new base. With the increasing
of K2 increases rapidly with the increasing C/T. For example, K2 modulus of the new base, the absolute values of K2 increases
changes from 131.7 kPa  m1/2 to 212.1 kPa  m1/2 with a when C/T is less than 0.6 and decreases slightly when C/T is
surface thickness of 20 cm when C/T varies from 0.2 to 0.8. larger than 0.6.
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the mod-
INFLUENCE OF MODULUS OF THE NEW AND ulus ratio of the new and existing bases rather than the modulus
EXISTING BASES of the new base determines the cracking potential of pavement
Fig. 9 shows K2 with the different modulus of the new base widening. Fig. 10 gives K2 of different modulus ratios of the new
under different loading modes. It can be seen from Fig. 9(a) that and existing bases. It is clear in Fig. 10(a) that the absolute val-
K2 is positive when the modulus of the new base is smaller than ues of K2 vary obviously for different modulus ratios under the
that of the existing base, and vice versa. When the modulus of symmetrical loading and they are close to zero regardless of
the new base is 1500 MPa, K2 approaches zero under the crack length when the modulus ratios of the new and existing
symmetrical loading. Because the absolute value of K2 denotes bases approach 1, which means that the cracking potential is
the cracking potential of a pavement widening, the cracking minimum when the existing and new bases have a uniform stiff-
potential decreases first and then increases with the increasing ness. It is observed from Fig. 10(b) that the absolute values of K2
modulus of the new base, and it reaches the minimum when the under the unsymmetrical loading are much larger than those
new and existing bases have a same modulus. Comparing with under the symmetrical loading and vary slightly with the
the results under the symmetrical loading, the absolute values of increasing modulus ratios for the same crack length. They also
K2 under the unsymmetrical loading, as shown in Fig. 9(b), are reach the minimum when the modulus ratios are 1. At the same
much larger and they increase rapidly with crack propagation time, the absolute values of K2 increase greatly with crack prop-
agation for the same modulus ratio. Because the difference of
modulus of the new and existing bases will lead to a differential
FIG. 8 Curves of K2 with different surface thicknesses.
compressive deformation, which can in turn quicken crack
propagation, the new base with a uniform modulus with the
existing base, which can be measured in field before pavement
widening, should be designed.

INFLUENCE OF GEOSYNTHETIC REINFORCEMENT

Fig. 11shows the tensile stress rx along the crack. The variation
rules of rx under the symmetrical and unsymmetrical loadings
are similar. It is clear that the most part of the upper pavement
above the crack is in tension (i.e., a positive value) when the
crack length is shorter (i.e., C/T is equal to 0.2 and 0.4). With
crack propagation (i.e., C/T is equal to 0.6), there is a compres-
sion stress in the whole depth of the pavement above the crack.
 ZHANG ET AL. ON ASPHALT PAVEMENT WIDENING 843

FIG. 9 Curves of K2 with different modulus of the new base: (a) symmetrical loading, and (b) unsymmetrical loading.

FIG. 10 Curves of K2 with different modulus ratios of the new and existing bases: (a) symmetrical loading, and (b) unsymmetrical loading.

FIG. 11 Curves of rx with different crack lengths: (a) symmetrical loading, and (b) unsymmetrical loading.
844 Journal of Testing and Evaluation

FIG. 12 Tension in the reinforcements. FIG. 13 Schematic test setup.

loading, a symmetrical loading was simulated for the sake of

simplification.
As shown in Fig. 13, as a simulation of the load because
of passing vehicles, a steel plate with dimensions of
In addition, the stress around the crack tip is infinite regardless 7 cm  4 cm  1 cm (length  width  height) was placed on
of the crack length. Comparing the stress around the crack tip the center of the specimen across the crack and loaded using a
for different reinforcement conditions in Fig. 11, it can be seen cyclic haversine load. For better distribution of the load, a
that geosynthetics can reduce the stress concentration under the 1-cm-thick rubber layer was placed under the loading plate. The
two loading modes, and this effect becomes greater with the maximum load was 2 kN and provided stress of 0.714 MPa,
increasing reinforcement stiffness. which is close to the design load of 0.7 MPa in China. The
The tension of reinforcement for different crack lengths is loading frequency was 10 Hz with the rest period of 50 ms.
given in Fig. 12. It is clear from Fig. 12 that with the increasing Because a new base with a same stiffness with the old base
reinforcement stiffness and crack length, the tension of rein- should be designed in terms of above analysis, two same
forcement, Tg, increases. Meanwhile, the unsymmetrical loading concrete blocks with dimensions of 13.5 cm  7 cm  8 cm
has a greater effect on the tension of reinforcement than the (length  width  height) under the asphalt overlay were used
symmetrical loading. Accordingly, reinforcements across the to simulate the new and existing bases. A joint between the con-
joint can effectively reduce the stress concentration around crete blocks was set. A neoprene layer with the elastic modulu
the crack tip and retard crack propagation. The larger the rein- of 11,000 kPa and dimensions of 24 cm  7 cm  2.5 cm
forcement stiffness is, the greater the influence of delaying crack (length  width  height) played the role of subgrade and other
propagation is. layers below the new and existing bases. During the test, the
temperature of 15 C was maintained by placing the specimens
Experimental Evaluation of in a test chamber for 2 h prior to testing. The loading was
applied by an MTS servo-hydraulic machine with a data-
Using Geosynthetics
acquisition system that could collect data in 0.01 s intervals
According to the above analysis, the reinforcement can effec- from eight ports of force and strain gauge. The test was finished
tively delay the reflective crack propagation in widened asphalt with a 600,000 cycles.
pavements. However, the numerical simulation cannot
distinguish the types of the reinforcements because only the MATERIALS
parameters of JG and Poisson’s ratio were used to model the To decrease the variability of the tests, two kinds of fine asphalt
reinforcements. Actually, there are many kinds of geosynthetics concrete (AC-13) with a common asphalt binder and SBS
in the field. Accordingly, an experimental study was conducted asphalt binder to represent the overlay layer were used, which
to investigate the influence of the types of reinforcements and have a nominal maximum size of 13.2 mm. They contained
asphalt overlays on crack propagation. 5.0 % asphalt binder by weight. The tack coat with an amount
of 0.8 l/m2  1.2 l/m2 was sprayed on the polypropylene geotex-
TEST SETUP tile and glass-fiber grid used in the study to enhance the bond
The specimen was prepared in three layers: (1) new and existing between them and adjacent pavement structures. The polypro-
bases, (2) tack coat and geosynthetic layer, and (3) asphalt over- pylene geotextile consists of 60 % polypropylene and 40 % glass
lay. The asphalt overlay’s dimensions were 24 cm  7 cm  5 cm fibers with a tensile strength of 1525 kg/m (machine direction)
(length  width  height). It can be concluded from Fig. 12 that at 2 % tensile strain. The glass-fiber grid with a square hole of
the geosynthetics significantly slow down the crack propagation 1.27 cm  1.27 cm has a tensile strength over 70 kN/m (machine
both under the symmetrical loading and unsymmetrical direction) at 5 % tensile strain.
 ZHANG ET AL. ON ASPHALT PAVEMENT WIDENING 845

same. It is important to keep the modulus of the new

FIG. 14 Test results.
base close to that of the existing base.
(3) The geosynthetic reinforcements are helpful to reduce
the stress concentration around the crack tip and delay
the reflective cracks propagation. Increasing the sheet
stiffness of the geosynthetic can improve this beneficial
effect. The polypropylene geotextile performs better than
the glass-fiber grid in terms of the extension of fatigue
life of the widening pavement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The writers are grateful for the financial support from the
National High Technology Research and Development Program
of China (2012AA112504), National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (51108048, 51478054) and Jiangxi Communica-
tions Department Program (2013C0011). The efforts of
Xiaoming Huang, Professor of the Transportation School of
TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Southeast University, are highly appreciated.
Fig. 14 gives the cycles of the initial and terminal crack rate of
crack propagation. C and S denote the asphalt overlays with the
common and SBS asphalt binder; N, P, and G represent no rein-
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