Application of a material fatigue damage model in 4PB tests

The fatigue property of an asphalt mix is an important issue in pavement design. This property is often determined with the aid of a four-point bending (4PB) test in controlled deflection mode. The fatigue property is related to the decrease in the calculated complex stiffness modulus, however, due to the non- homogenous stress and strain field in the beam, the measured response does not represent the stiffness modulus of the material but a weighted stiffness value. For a correct interpretation, a fatigue damage material model like the Asphalt Concrete Pavement-Fatigue model is needed. After integration, the calculated and measured responses are compared. By varying the model parameters, an excellent comparison between the two responses is obtained up to a certain number of cycles. This number of cycles is denoted as the fatigue life N PH . The accumulated dissipated energy at the surface of the beam in the midsection can be expressed as a constant times the fatigue life N PH to the power z and also as a constant times the product of the fatigue life N PH and the initial dissipated energy in the first cycle. Using these two findings, a Wöhler curve was established similar to the one directly based on the strain amplitudes and fatigue life data.