Predicting healing in viscoelastic bitumen using alien strain method

This study aims to predict healing of bitumen with alien strain method. Strain-controlled fatigue load in healing test was decomposed into three alien loads with different start times and rotational directions. Results show that healing prediction can be obtained by superimposing crack lengths induced by the first and second alien strain loads. The reliability of healing prediction is validated by healing tests with rest durations of 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, and 20 min of four different types of bitumen. This healing prediction provides an approach to remove erroneous data measured in healing test, which yields a more accurate characterisation of healing performance.