Self-Monitoring of Damage Evolution in Asphalt Concrete Based on Electrical Resistance Change Method

Asphalt pavements expose early damage during their service life. The early damage grows internally until it accumulates and transforms into macro-damage that leads to structural failure. To promote real-time monitoring of internal damage evolution in asphalt pavements, this study proposes an electrical resistance change (ERC) method that exploits the piezoresistive properties of conductive asphalt concrete as a nondestructive testing technique capable of detecting microstructural defects. For this purpose, the traditional asphalt mixtures were first made electrically conductive by adding carbon fibers and iron tailing aggregates as conductive aggregates to satisfy the piezoresistivity requirements. Secondly, piezoresistivity experiments were performed by applying cyclic tensile force in fatigue and progressively increasing mode. The self-monitoring ability of damage evolution was assessed based on the correlation between the fractional change in electrical resistance (FCR), displacement, and damage degree for each mode of the force application. It was observed that under fatigue mode, the FCR and displacement increase upon loading and decrease reversibly upon unloading in each cycle. Compared with the displacement, the FCR exhibits partial reversibility upon unloading, indicating damage initiation in each cycle. The damage grows with the number of loading cycles until it accumulates in the elastic regime and gradually affects the load-carrying capacity of the mixture. Under a progressively increasing mode, the mixture exhibits a good correlation between the FCR and force in the elastic regime, ensuring real-time monitoring of internal micro-damage. However, the FCR develops a nonlinear correlation with the force in the inelastic regime that reflects damage to the conductive network and eventually structural failure. In summary, the ERC method provides real-time monitoring of microstructural defects that manifest as early damage and gradually transform into macro-damage under repeated traffic loads.