Development of a multi-stage semi-circle bending cyclic test to evaluate the cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures

This study aimed to develop, evaluate, and validate a new cyclic cracking assessment test that has advantages over the available monotonic and cyclic cracking assessment tests. Also, it addresses the major concerns related to the implementation of the Balanced Mix Design (BMD) such as long specimen preparation and testing time and the validity of cracking performance assessment tests. The laboratory evaluation findings showed that the proposed test and derived performance indicators were sensitive to the composition of mixes, had variability lower than other cyclic tests, and similar to the one obtained from the monotonic performance indicators. Besides, it correlated well with the observed field cracking performance of sixteen field projects. The derived indicators were able to distinguish between different field cracking performance groups and develop a pass/fail performance cracking assessment threshold.