Bituminous membranes technology has recently come into use in Israel in order to retard the process of reflection cracking in new asphalt overlays. Thus, in an effort to establish design criteria for this technology a simulation laboratory research was undertaken, aiming to achieve a mechanical simulation of fatigue crack propagation in asphaltic mixtures with Bituminous membranes as a function of the number of load applications. A number of experiments were conducted within this model, including the testing of sand-asphalt be.ams with 4 kinds of Bituminous membranes and with 2 kinds of sand-asphalt beams for control. From the test results one can conclude that the fatigue life is a function of the membrane’s characteristics such as thickness, modulus of elasticity, and the amount of the modifier in the bitumen mass. The analytical model was based on variables which represents the experimental testing geometry, testing configuration and material properties. The stress intensity factor as related to crack propagation was correlated with this variables using finite element techniques.
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