HOMOGENEITY OF INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF ASPHALT MIXTURES BASED ON DENSITY OF INCLUSIONS

The objective of this study is to test and evaluate the homogeneity of internal structure of asphalt mixtures effectively. A homogeneity identifying method based on the density of inclusions (HIMDI) of asphalt mixtures is put forward which uses X-ray CT techniques and digital image processing to consider the interaction of coarse aggregate, mastics, and air voids. Asphalt mixture specimens including four groups of asphalt-aggregate ratios are used to analyze the homogeneity of the internal structure of the specimens using the HIMDI. The results show that the homogeneity of internal structures of single or a set of asphalt mixtures specimens can be characterized through analyzing the homogeneity evaluation parameters proposed by the HIMDI, and the difference between the optimum asphalt-aggregate ratio of asphalt mixtures calculated by the HIMDI and the test result is 0.21%. This means that the HIMDI is an effective method with acceptable precision in analyzing homogeneity of internal structure of asphalt mixtures.