FAT SPOTS

From Pavement Interactive

Contents

 1 Description
 2 Problem
 3 Possible Causes
 4 Solutions

Description

Isolated areas in the mat where excess asphalt binder is visible on the surface.

Fat spots in a newly

Fat spots seen in a core showing
constructed SMA
a SMA top layer

Problem

A few scattered fat spots may not significantly affect mat durability or pavement structure. A
large number of fat spots may affect:

 Pavement performance. Air voids in fat spot locations may be excessively low leading
to potential shoving and rutting.

 Skid resistance. Fat spots have a smooth surface texture and will decrease skid
resistance, especially when wet.
Possible Causes

Causes can be related to HMA moisture, petroleum/diesel contamination or construction:

 Excessive moisture in the HMA. Aggregate with significant moisture can cause fat
spots because the moisture vapor will force asphalt binder to the mat surface behind the
paver as it escapes from the mix.
 Petroleum or diesel contamination. This can occur when petroleum products are spilled
onto the underlying surface in isolated areas before paving or when these products
contaminate the mix.
 Construction. Mixes that use heavily modified asphalt binders, such as SMA, tend to
generate accumulations of asphalt binder on construction equipment like pavers and
MTVs. As binder accumulates, it eventually breaks free of the equipment or drips onto
the mat below causing a fat spot.

Solutions

Solutions differ depending upon the cause:

 Excessive moisture in the HMA. Ensure all aggregate is dry when combined with
asphalt binder during the HMA process. Moisture content should be as low as
possible but generally not more than 0.5 percent.
 Petroleum or diesel contamination. Be especially careful when using petroleum or
diesel products around a paving site. These products are banned by most agencies as a
truck bed release agent because of their destructive effect on HMA mats.
 Construction. When paving with modified binders, be particularly careful that excess
asphalt binder does not accumulate on paving equipment and drip onto the newly
placed mat
CORRUGATION AND SHOVING

Description

A form of plastic movement typified by ripples (corrugation) or an abrupt wave (shoving) across
the pavement surface. The distortion is perpendicular to the traffic direction. Usually occurs at
points where traffic starts and stops (corrugation) or areas where HMA abuts a rigid object
(shoving).

Corrugations on a steep Shoving at a busy Shoving in the parking

city street intersection lane of a collector road.

Problem

Roughness

Possible Causes

Usually caused by traffic action (starting and stopping) combined with:

An unstable (i.e. low stiffness) HMA layer (caused by mix contamination, poor mix design,
poor HMA manufacturing, or lack of aeration of liquid asphalt emulsions)
Excessive moisture in the subgrade

Repair
A heavily corrugated or shoved pavement should be investigated to determine the root cause of
failure. Repair strategies generally fall into one of two categories:

 Small, localized areas of corrugation or shoving. Remove the distorted pavement and
patch.
 Large corrugated or shoved areas indicative of general HMA failure. Remove the
damaged pavement and overlay.

Skid Resistance

Skid resistance is the force developed when a tire that is prevented from rotating slides along
the pavement surface (Highway Research Board, 1972). Skid resistance is an important
pavement evaluation parameter because:

Inadequate skid resistance will lead to higher incidences of skid related accidents.
Most agencies have an obligation to provide users with a roadway that is "reasonably" safe.
Skid resistance measurements can be used to evaluate various types of materials and
construction practices.

Skid resistance depends on a pavement surface's micro texture and macro texture (Corley-Lay,
1998). Micro texture refers to the small-scale texture of the pavement aggregate component
(which controls contact between the tire rubber and the pavement surface) while macro texture
refers to the large-scale texture of the pavement as a whole due to the aggregate particle
arrangement (which controls the escape of water from under the tire and hence the loss of skid
resistance with increased speed) (AASHTO, 1976). Skid resistance changes over time.
Typically it increases in the first two years following construction as the roadway is worn away
by traffic and rough aggregate surfaces become exposed, then decreases over the remaining
pavement life as aggregates become more polished. Skid resistance is also typically higher in
the fall and winter and lower in the spring and summer. This seasonal variation is quite
significant and can severely skew skid resistance data if not compensated for (Jayawickrama
and Thomas, 1998).
Measurement

Skid resistance is generally quantified using some form of friction measurement such as a
friction factor or skid number.

It is not correct to say a pavement has a certain friction factor because friction involves two
bodies, the tires and the pavement, which are extremely variable due to pavement wetness,
vehicle speed, temperature, tire wear, tire type, etc. Typical friction tests specify standard tires
and environmental conditions to overcome this.

In general, the friction resistance of most dry pavements is relatively high; wet pavements are
the problem. The number of accidents on wet pavements is twice as high as dry pavements (but
other factors such as visibility are involved in addition to skid resistance). Table 1 shows some
typical Skid Numbers (the higher the SN, the better).

Table 1. Typical Skid Numbers

Skid Number Comments

 <30 Take measures to correct

≥30 Acceptable for low volume roads

31 - 34 Monitor pavement frequently

≥35 Acceptable for heavily traveled roads

Measurement Techniques

Skid testing in the U.S. may occur in a number of ways, this section covers some of the more
common methods including:

A. The locked wheel tester

B. The spin up tester
C. Surface texture measurement

A. Locked Wheel Tester

The most commonly used method in the U.S. for skid resistance testing uses some form of a
lock wheel tester (see Figure 1). Basically, this method uses a locked wheel skidding along the
tested surface to measure friction resistance. A typical lock-wheel skid measurement system
must have the following:

 A test vehicle with one or more test wheels incorporated into it or as part of a towed
trailer.
 A standard tire for use on the test wheel. The standardized skid-test tire, a tubeless, bias-
ply G78x15 tire with seven circumferential grooves, is defined by AASHTO M 261 or
ASTM E 501. A newer tire, one with no grooves, appears to be gaining acceptance as
well. By defining the standard test tire, the tire type and design are eliminated as
variables in the measurement of pavement skid resistance.
  A means to transport water (usually 750 to 1900 liters (200 to 500 gallons)) and the
necessary apparatus to deliver it in front of the test wheel at test speed
 A transducer associated with the test wheel that senses the force developed between the
skidding test wheel and the pavement
 Electronic signal conditioning equipment to receive the transducer output signal and
modify it as required

Suitable analog and/or digital readout equipment to record either the magnitude of the
developed force or the calculated value of the resulting Skid Number (SN)

Figure 1. Lock Wheeled Skid Tester

 Figure 2. Lock Wheeled Skid Tester

To take a measurement, the vehicle (or trailer) is brought to the desired testing speed (typically
64 km/hr (40 mph)) and water is sprayed ahead of the test tire to create a wetted pavement
surface. The test tire braking system is then actuated to lock the test tire. Instrumentation
measures the friction force acting between the test tire and the pavement and reports the result
as a Skid Number (SN). Standard locked-wheel friction tests are:

AASHTO T 242: Frictional Properties of Paved Surfaces Using a Full-Scale Tire

ASTM E 274: Skid Resistance of Paved Surfaces Using a Full-Scale Tire

B. SPIN UP TESTER

A spin up tester has the same basic setup as a locked wheel tester but operates in an opposite
manner. For a spin up tester, the vehicle (or trailer) is brought to the desired testing speed
(typically 64 km/hr (40 mph)) and a locked test wheel is lowered to the pavement surface. The
test wheel braking system is then released and the test wheel is allowed to "spin up" to normal
traveling speed due to its contact with the pavement. Mathematically, the friction force at the
tire/pavement interface at any moment corresponds to that which would be present if the locked
tire were pulled along the pavement at the testing speed (Wambold et al., 1990). The spin up
tester offers two advantages over the locked wheel tester:

No force measurement is necessary, the force can be computed by knowing the test wheel's
moment of inertia and its rotational acceleration (Wambold et al., 1990). Force measuring
devices for the locked wheel tester cost a significant amount of money.

Because the test tire is in contact with the pavement while locked for a much shorter time than
the locked wheel tester, it significantly reduces test tire wear.

C. Surface Texture Measurement

Because pavement skid resistance is tied to surface macro texture, some methods seek to
measure a pavement's macro texture then correlate it with skid resistance as measured by some
other, more traditional method. The simplest surface texture measurement is the sand patch test
(ASTM E 965). The test is carried out on a dry pavement surface by pouring a known quantity
of sand onto the surface and spreading it in a circular pattern with a straightedge. As the sand is
spread, it fills the low spots in the pavement surface. When the sand cannot be spread any
further, the diameter of the resulting circle is measured. This diameter can then be correlated to
an average texture depth, which can be correlated to skid resistance. A texture depth of about
1.5 mm (0.06 inches) is normally required for heavily trafficked areas.

Laser or advanced image processing equipment is capable of determining surface macrotexture

from a vehicle moving at normal travel speeds. One particular device, the Road Surface
Analyzer (ROSAN), a series of non-contact pavement surface texture measurement devices, has
been developed by the FHWA's Turner Fairbanks Research Center Pavement Surface Analysis
Laboratory. The ROSAN (see Figure 3) can be used for measuring texture, aggregate
segregation, grooves, tinning, joints, and faulting (FHWA, 2001). ROSAN systems have been
used in a number of NCHRP and FHWA sponsored studies. Some integrated analysis units can
use surface texture measuring to estimate skid resistance.

Figure 3. Prototype ROSAN device (circa 1998).

The one drawback to this method is that a pavement's surface macro texture does not entirely
determine its skid resistance. Therefore, correlation between surface macro texture and skid
resistance is often difficult to extrapolate into any general guidance.
RUTTING

Description

Surface depression in the wheel path. Pavement uplift (shearing) may occur along the sides of
the rut. Ruts are particularly evident after a rain when they are filled with water. There are two
basic types of rutting: mix rutting and subgrade rutting. Mix rutting occurs when the subgrade
does not rut yet the pavement surface exhibits wheel path depressions as a result of
compaction/mix design problems. Subgrade rutting occurs when the subgrade exhibits wheel
path depressions due to loading. In this case, the pavement settles into the subgrade ruts causing
surface depressions in the wheel path.

Severe mix rutting - likely due Mix rutting. Rutting in outside wheel path
to a mix design or mix due to subgrade rutting.
production problem.
 Problem

Ruts filled with water can cause vehicle hydroplaning, can be hazardous because ruts tend to
pull a vehicle towards the rut path as it is steered across the rut.

Possible Causes

 Permanent deformation in any of a pavement's layers or subgrade usually caused by

consolidation or lateral movement of the materials due to traffic loading. Specific causes
of rutting can be:
 Insufficient compaction of HMA layers during construction. If it is not compacted
enough initially, HMA pavement may continue to densify under traffic loads.
 Subgrade rutting (e.g., as a result of inadequate pavement structure)
 Improper mix design or manufacture (e.g., excessively high asphalt content, excessive
mineral filler, insufficient amount of angular aggregate particles)
 Ruts caused by studded tire wear present the same problem as the ruts described here,
but they are actually a result of mechanical dislodging due to wear and not pavement
deformation.

Repair

A heavily rutted pavement should be investigated to determine the root cause of failure (e.g.
insufficient compaction, subgrade rutting, poor mix design or studded tire wear). Slight ruts (<
1/3 inch deep) can generally be left untreated. Pavement with deeper ruts should be leveled and
overlayed