MMLS3-Based Research on AntiReflective Cracking Performance of Geotextile

Abstract:

An accelerated pavement test using 1/3 model mobile load simulator(MMLS3) on a 1/3 proportional pavement structure model has been conducted to study the antireflective cracking performance of geotextile under the combination of tensile and shear effect due to traffic load. The strain and crack propagation has been monitored during the test. Results show that: for geotextile group, the load cycles of crack initiation and penetration are 3.55 and 3.25 times as much as nongeotextile group, respectively. The total strain and elastic strain of geotextile group are higher than non geotextile group before crack initiation because of the reduction of interlayer adhesion. However, geotextile can help retard crack initiation by increasing the composite fracture energy combined with surface layer; after cracking, geotextile assists surface layer to endure the tensile and shear effect under traffic load with its increasing tensile deformation and tensile resistance, so the total strain and elastic strain of geotextile group decrease; after crack penetration, geotextile suppresses the horizontal propagation of the crack and the vertical displacement of the pavement structure by maintaining the connection of structure across the crack. Therefore, the total strain and elastic strain of geotextile group remain stable at 180×10-6 and 9×10-6 respectively. By contrast, the total strain and elastic strain of non-geotextile group exceed 600×10-6 and 8×10-6 respectively and continue to grow with the expansion of crack.