Issue 43

M. Fakhri et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 43 (2018) 113-132; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.43.09 127 Figure 18 : The effect of air void content on fracture energy at 25°C under mixed mode I/II loading condition. The effect of testing temperature on fracture energy under mixed mode I/II loading condition Fig. 19 demonstrate the simultaneous effect of temperature and loading rate on AC fracture energy under mixed mode I/II loading condition. The same as pure modes I and II, fracture energy of AC mix has a maximum value under loading rate of 10 mm/min at 5°C, because of quasi brittle behavior of asphalt mixture. 15°C seems to be a transition level for the behavior of asphalt mixtures since the trend of fracture energy change is different at lower and higher temperatures (peaky at 5°C and increasing by a sharp slope at 25°C, respectively). Such an observation has been reported in this article for AC specimens under pure mode I and pure mode II loading conditions. Figure 19 : The effect of temperature on fracture energy in four different loading rates under mixed mode I/II loading condition The effect of loading rate and temperature on peak load and test time under mixed mode I/II loading condition One of the most important issues to investigators in the field of AC fracture is the effect of temperature and loading rate on the crack growth time and the maximum load that a pre-cracked AC specimen can tolerate at different temperatures