Application of a strain sweep test to assess fatigue behavior of asphalt binders

Fatigue cracking is the most common failure mechanism of bituminous pavements. Asphalt binders gives cohesion to the mixture, and are therefore particularly prone to fatigue. The Road Research Laboratory of the Technical University of Catalonia is developing a uniaxial tension–compression test to characterize the fatigue behavior of asphalt binders by performing fatigue strain sweep tests. This paper describes the efforts to calibrate the test procedure by evaluating its repeatability and sensitivity to test temperature/frequency and binder type. The test procedure presented a reasonably good repeatability in all parameters computed, and was sensitive to both the test frequency and the binder type.