Investigation of bottom-up pavement fatigue damage around an idealised transverse crack during an APT campaign

A full-scale study was conducted at Université Laval's indoor accelerated pavement facility in order to document the mechanical behaviour of a flexible pavement structure affected by an idealised transverse crack. The constructed pavement structure was subjected to different temperature conditions and loading repetitions using the Accelerated Transportation Loading System (ATLaS). Various sensors, in particular strain gauges, were embedded at precise positions around the idealised crack. The paper presents the methodology undertaken, and a comparison of longitudinal strains measured in the reference area to measurements around the crack. The study demonstrated that a transverse crack fundamentally alters longitudinal strain and bottom-up fatigue damage patterns compared to uncracked sections, leading to accentuated bottom-up cracking at a distance from the crack.