Abstract

This paper reports an investigation into predicting the effect of rainfall on the properties of four types of asphalt surfacing materials. A rainfall simulator was designed to wet a large asphalt slabs under different rainfall intensities and cross falls allowing water flow across and within the slab to be quantified. The effect of water film thickness on skid resistancewas assessed. Test specimens were prepared using gyratory compaction and assessed for water retention and drying out experiments. This showed the importance of nderstanding how water movement and storage within the surface layer in relation to potential moisture related problems. The effect of increasing number of simulated rainfall events was used to assess the durability of unaged and aged asphalt. The results show that it is possible to determine key performance data without the need for large scale road trials.