ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Construction Materials
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1672243
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements and Applications of Balanced Mix Design (BMD) In Asphalt Pavement Engineering: Towards Sustainable And Resilient InfrastructureView all 7 articles
Study on permeability characteristics of dense-graded asphalt concrete based on the meso-structure
Provisionally accepted
- 1Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China
- 2Shaanxi Polytechnic Institute, Xianyang, China
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Water damage caused by rainwater permeation significantly affect the durability of asphalt pavements. However, previous research lacked investigation of the permeability of dense-graded asphalt concrete (DGAC) from the view of meso-structure. This study systematically investigates the effects of nominal maximum aggregate size (NMAS) and compaction effort on the meso-scale pore structure of DGAC, further quantitatively analyzing the correlation between pore characteristics and permeability. In addition, an innovative "transparent dense-graded asphalt concrete" (TDGAC) method is applied to realize the visualization of the permeation process is asphalt mixtures. The results show that increasing compaction effort significantly reduces total air void contents and maintains the longitudinal "bathtub-shaped" distribution pattern. Besides, larger NMAS leads to more interconnected medium-large pores and a larger equivalent diameter of voids, which in turn results in higher permeability. Additionally, 5% and 7% air void contents are identified as critical permeability thresholds for AC-13 and AC-20, respectively. The correlation analysis indicates that permeability is primarily controlled by the pores with a volume larger than 5 mm³. The TDGAC visualization results directly confirm that the interfaces of coarse aggregates are the main pathways for water migration. The study explains the influence of compacting factors on meso-structures of DGAC, and establishes the relationship between pore characteristics and permeability, providing a theoretical basis to understand the mechanism of water-related pavement distress.
Keywords: Dense-graded asphalt concrete, Meso-structure, Permeability, Compacting factors, Correlation analysis
Received: 24 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sheng, Liu, Wei, Huang, Zhang, Lin, Sun and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bowei Sun, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China
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