Analysis of primary influencing factors and indices distribution law of rutting performance of asphalt mixtures

Rutting deformation is one of the most prominent diseases in asphalt pavement’s early damage. In this paper, the primary influencing factors, indices distribution law, and reasonable range of asphalt mixtures’ rutting are discussed using the Baohan highway in the Qinba mountain area, China, as an engineering example. Firstly, a large number of wheel rutting tests of asphalt mixtures (AC-13, AC-16, GAM-16) was conducted to obtain accurate and reliable data to fit curves and perform calculations. Secondly, the primary and secondary relations of the influencing factors that affect the asphalt mixtures’ rutting performance were analyzed based upon principal component analysis. The results showed that the influencing factors can be divided into three principal components. The first reflects the influence of the asphalt mixture’s internal composition characteristics, the second the influence of the environmental conditions, and the third the influence of human factors. The asphalt mixture’s rutting performance prediction model was established with the parameters of fractal dimension, asphalt dosage, and temperature. Finally, the asphalt mixtures’ distribution law and reasonable range of rutting indices were analyzed with mathematical statistics. The results showed that the distribution function of the AC-13 asphalt mixture’s rutting performance indices that fit best is the Gamma distribution, that of the AC-16 asphalt mixture is the Normal distribution, and that of the GAM-16 asphalt mixture is the Lognormal distribution and Normal distributions. We recommend that the AC-13 asphalt modifier mixture’s DS ranges from 3200～9600 timing∙mm−1, that of the AC-16 asphalt mixture ranges from 1200～2900 timing∙mm−1, and that of the GAM-16 asphalt mixture ranges from 1500～4700 timing∙mm−1, which can provide a reference for the design and construction of highways’ pavement in similar areas.