Investigation of the influence of mixture and microstructural properties on the thermal conductivity of asphalt concrete using the transient heat transfer method

The structural performance of asphalt concrete is highly dependent on its thermal properties, especially in regions where daily or seasonal temperature variations are significant. In mechanistic design methods, thermal properties (specific heat, thermal conductivity, and coefficient of thermal expansion) are necessary to estimate the thermal behavior of asphalt concrete. However, the measurement of these properties is still a challenge, not only because of the heterogeneous structure of asphalt concrete but also because of the limitations imposed by the size of the test samples and the reliability of the measurement methods. In this study, a practical method, the Transient Plane Source (TPS), is proposed to measure the thermal conductivity of laboratory-produced asphalt concrete samples. To determine how thermal conductivity is affected by the maximum aggregate size, air voids, and aggregate source, a series of asphalt mixtures are compacted using the Superpave gyratory compactor to produce test samples. To determine the possible relationship between microstructural and thermal properties, which has not been investigated in previous studies, an image analysis is also performed to calculate the number of contact points and the total aggregate area in each sample. The statistical analyses show that all mixture properties, i.e., maximum aggregate size, air void content, and aggregate source, are significant, with the aggregate source having the greatest influence on the thermal conductivity of the samples. It is also shown that the TPS method is sensitive to the properties of the contact area, which significantly affects the reliability of the measurements.