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HUESKER France SAS
Rue Jacques Coulaux
67190 Gresswiller
France

Parameter to Ensure a Durable Grid-Reinforced Asphalt Pavement

Abstract

Asphalt reinforcement products manufactured using polyester fibers have successfully been ap-plied in pavement rehabilitation for more than 40 years. Their outstanding performance has helped to increase time between maintenance, which has not only had a substantial financial cost saving but also a very positive ecological effect, in form of a reduction in the use of exhaustible resources and less construction traffic. The practice impressively shows the function of asphalt reinforcement, but the theoretical aspects of the function are not completely researched. Through the introduction of a design model for reinforced roads, we have fixed the factors of influence which are responsible for a durable effective asphalt reinforcement. Research has fo-cused on following topics: 1) surface characteristics of the raw material and their effect on the in-situ activated tensile strength; and 2) elongation underneath the asphalt layer during dynamic loading and the influence on lifetime expectation.

Conclusion

Reflective cracking occurs in cracked pavements re-habilitated with a simple asphalt overlay. To retard this phenomenon many researches have demonstrated that the use of asphalt reinforcement grid shows great benefits in the road rehabilitation. However, despite the positive experience obtained over the world for more than 40 years, the asphalt reinforcement has not been sufficiently taken into account in the design of asphalt pavements. With this paper further steps have been done to come closer to a design method, intro-ducing important parameters which should be taken into account for a good pavement performance and a durable reinforced rehabilitation. Nevertheless more research has to be done to verify the results by further empirical testing and developing a numerical model. The presented latest research indicate bituminous coated polyester reinforcement seems to be ideal as asphalt reinforcement against reflective cracking in asphalt overlays, resulting in an extension of the ser-vice life of a rehabilitated pavement.