A review of state of the art on stripping phenomenon in asphalt concrete

Stripping is an important type of distress about which gaining thorough information can improve the pavements design methods. A brief review of researches on the stripping potential of asphalt mixtures over the past 40 years has been presented in this paper. The contents of the article include mechanisms of moisture damage occurrence and contributing factors, as well as an introduction to the variety of steps taken in an effort to experimentally and numerically model the moisture damage propagation. Researches on stripping have been divided into three categories of field studies, laboratory investigations, and numerical and computational analysis. Laboratory experiments are also categorized into five groups. Tests on loose mixtures, destructive mechanical tests on asphalt concrete, nondestructive mechanical tests on asphalt concrete, mechanical tests which provide a measure of cohesion in asphalt and adhesion between asphalt and aggregate, non-mechanical tests which provide a measure of cohesion and adhesion based on surface energy theories, and non-destructive non-mechanical tests. In different sections of the article, achievements including the shortcomings and blessings in each branch of researches have been discussed and finally suggestions for future investigations have been presented.