Two new standards have recently been approved by ASTM International Committee D04 on Road and Paving Materials. The standards, both of which are under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee D04.26 on Fundamental/Mechanistic Tests, are D 6931, Test Method for Indirect Tensile (IDT) Strength of Bituminous Mixtures, and D 7312, Test Method for Determining the Permanent Shear Strain and Complex Shear Modulus of Asphalt Mixtures Using the Superpave Shear Tester (SST).
Committee D04 will meet June 26-28 during the June Committee Week in Norfolk, Va. All interested parties are invited to join in the standards developing activities of D04.
According to Richard W. May, performance testing laboratory manager, SemMaterials, L.P., and a Subcommittee D04.26 member, D 6931 will serve several purposes for pavement design and analysis engineers, asphalt concrete mix designers and laboratory technicians.
“This test has been used for evaluating many types of asphalt concrete performance, such as fatigue cracking propagation, rutting and moisture susceptibility or stripping, where half of the specimens are subjected to conditioning to evaluate the loss in strength compared to unconditioned specimens,” says May. He also notes that the test covered in D 6931 is not a new test, but has been used by many in the pavement field over the last 40 years to predict performance and evaluate reasons for distress, such as stripping and segregation.
The subcommittee is seeking laboratories that can participate in multi-laboratory precision and reproducibility testing. “We will be seeking out mix design laboratories that have the capability of running this simple compressive load testing, which creates the indirect tension through the diametral plane of the specimen,” said May.
For membership or meeting information, contact Daniel Smith, manager, Technical Committee Operations, ASTM International by phone at (610) 832-9727, or by email at [email protected].
