摘要: |
Increases in traffic volume and loads, demands for longer-lasting pavements that reduce user delays due to reconstruction, and rising costs of energy and asphalt materials are some of the major challenges facing the paving industry and state departments of transportation in the United States. The concept of perpetual pavements has been identified as an emerging design technique to solve these challenges. Perpetual asphalt pavements are designed and built to last 50 years or more without requiring major structural rehabilitation or reconstruction. In perpetual pavements distresses are confined to the upper layer of the structure, by eliminating or reducing the potential for fatigue cracking through maintaining the strains in the pavement below a critical fatigue endurance limit (FEL). |