Prediction of rutting potential of dense bituminous mixtures with polypropylene fibers via repeated creep testing by using neuro-fuzzy approach

Abstract

This study investigates the potential use of the neuro-fuzzy (NF) approach to model the rutting prediction by the aid of repeated creep testing results for polypropylene modified asphalt mixtures. Marshall specimens, fabricated with M-03 type polypropylene fibers at optimum bitumen content have been tested in order to predict their rutting potential under different load values and loading patterns at 50 degrees C. Throughout the testing phase, it has been clearly shown that the addition of polypropylene fibers results in improved Marshall stabilities and decrease in the flow values, providing an eminent increase of the service life of samples under repeated creep testing. The performance of the accuracy of proposed neuro-fuzzy model is observed to be quite satisfactory. In addition, to obtain the main effects plot, a wide range of detailed two and three dimensional parametric studies have been performed.