Introduction to Rotary Compactor and Wheel Tracker (RCWT) Equipment

A laboratory testing equipment for asphalt mixtures with three different functionalities is introduced. The Rotary Compactor and Wheel Tracker (RCWT) was developed at University Putra Malaysia (UPM). This equipment is able to capture the realistic contact areas of actual ۱۲-inch pneumatic tyres.Using the RCWT, the heavy-duty laboratory asphalt mixtures are compacted to the desirable density and consequently simulative wheel tracking test can be performed. It is able to replicate the Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) full-scale site rollers. The simulated wheel tracking test with actual tyres, reproduced the non-uniform contact stresses, as well as other nonlinear and viscoelastic behaviour within the tyre-pavement interface. Furthermore, instrumentation syste and the data acquisition set-up captured all the important parameters, such as the asphalt mixture temperature, induced load, rutting depth and vertical strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer.

Keywords:

RCWT , heavy-duty asphalt mixtures , simulative wheel tracking test.