PSI - Issue 37

Jesús Toribio et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 37 (2022) 985–988 Jesús Toribio / Procedia Structural Integrity 00 (2021) 000 – 000

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Apart from standard laboratory tests, numerical procedures such as the finite element method have been used in the past to analyse the mechanical response of HBM for road pavements, although it is still difficult to correlate the numerical results obtained with the computer and the in situ real response of the HBM (Mulungye et al., 2007). This paper offers a review of previous research by the authors about structural integrity of HBM for road pavements, analyzing in particular mechanical and environmental factors governing fatigue and fracture. 2. Fatigue behaviour of HBM The fatigue behaviour of HBM was studied by Tino et al. (2008). Fatigue tests were performed on real samples of in situ HBM taken from a real road pavement in service (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Sample of in situ HBM taken from the road pavement.

Fig. 2 shows a picture of the experimental device used in the fatigue tests.

Fig. 2. Fatigue test.

Two loading sequences were applied on the samples: (i) sinusoidal type with a frequency of 10 Hertz and (ii) complex type with a frequency of 1 Hz (one cycle for 0.1 s and quasi-zero load during 0.9 s) to simulate real traffic loads on the HBM placed in the road pavement (Fig. 3).