Fatigue and Antireflective Cracking Properties of Binder Course Mixtures Used in China

Reflective cracking is one of major early distresses in newly constructed semi-rigid pavements in China. Such semi-rigid pavements usually consist of three layers of hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures on the top of a cement-treated aggregate (CTA) base. To control the CTA base cracks reflected to the surface, a HMA binder course mixture is desired to be not only anti-reflective cracking but also fatigue resistant. This study was in an effort to investigate the reflective cracking problem on semi-rigid pavements through a proper binder course mixture design and laboratory characterization of the fatigue and anti-cracking properties of binder course mixtures used in China.