Watertightness, cracking resistance, and self-healing of asphalt concrete used as a water barrier in dams

The coefficient of permeability of hydraulic asphalt concrete is in the range 10−8–10−10 cm/s. Laboratory test results show that triaxial specimens in axial compression can undergo axial strains up to 18% without any significant increase in permeability until approaching the compressive strength. For temperatures between 5 and 20 °C and strain rates between 2 × 10−3%/s and 5 × 10−3%/s, conventional hydraulic asphalt concrete can tolerate 1%–3% tensile strains before cracking in direct tension tests and strains up to 3%–4% in bending. At 20 °C the tensile and bending strains at cracking are 2–4 times higher than those at 0 °C, and at −20 °C they are approximately 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively. Asphalt concrete possesses pronounced crack self-healing properties. In the experiments, the crack leakage rate dropped 1–4 orders of magnitude within a few hours and the cracked specimens regained 55% of the intact tensile strength after only 1 day of self-healing. In summary, the comprehensive series of laboratory te...