Analysis of crumb rubber content influence on damage evolution and pattern recognition of rubberised epoxy asphalt mixture using acoustic emission techniques

International Journal of Pavement Engineering, vol. 25

Abstract

The application of coarse crumb rubber (CR) to toughen the epoxy asphalt mixture has emerged as a viable choice. However, the evolution rule of strength and damage modes of mixtures with different crumb rubber contents remains elusive. The objective of this study is to clarify the failure mechanisms in rubberized epoxy asphalt mixture combined acoustic emission (AE) data and k-means clustering theory. Four types of epoxy asphalt mixture samples are tested with the monitor of AE sensors. Based on the temporal and frequential features of AE signals, damage evolution is evaluated by the Weibull function, b-value, and the relationship between the raise angle and average frequency at the peak loading. Moreover, the k-means algorithm is conducted to cluster the AE events and damage characteristics after pre-processing the data. The test results indicate that CR particles enhance the toughness of epoxy asphalt mixtures and the mixtures with fewer CR are susceptible to occur sudden fracture due to brittle coarse aggregates. The k-means method effectively identifies AE events into four types of damaged behaviours. The findings offer valuable insights into the strength attenuation, modification characteristics, damage evolution and damage modes of rubberized epoxy asphalt mixtures, contributing to the development of more durable and resilient asphalt materials.

Authors 7

1. Chenguang Shi

   Chongqing Jiaotong University · Southeast University

   Affiliation as printed

   National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Transportation and Civil Engineering Materials, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

   School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

2. You Wu

   Southeast University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

3. Haopeng Wang

   University of Nottingham

   Affiliation as printed

   Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

4. Song Liu

   Nanjing Forestry University

   Affiliation as printed

   College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China

5. Pengfei Liu Aachen Institute of Highway Engineering

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Highway Engineering (ISAC), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

6. Jun Yang corresponding

   Southeast University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China

7. Wei Huang

   Southeast University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China