Journal of Testing and Evaluation
doi:10.1520/JTE20150135 / Vol. 44
Manuscript received March 31, 2015;
accepted for publication September 23,
2015; published online December 14,
2015.
1 test called the creep and step-loading recovery (CSR) test, along with a new mechanistic
Texas A&M Transportation Inst., Texas
A&M Univ. System, 77843 College
Station, TX (Corresponding author),
e-mail: xueluo@tamu.edu
2
Zachry Dept. of Civil Engineering, Texas
A&M Univ., 77843 College Station, TX,
email: r-lytton@civil.tamu.edu
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C
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/ No. 6 / November 2016 / available online at www.astm.org
Xue Luo1 and Robert L. Lytton2
Characterization of Healing of Asphalt Mixtures
Using Creep and Step-Loading Recovery Test
Reference
Luo, X. and Lytton, R. L., “Characterization of Healing of Asphalt Mixtures Using Creep and Step-Loading
Recovery Test,” Journal of Testing and Evaluation, Vol. 44, No. 6, 2016, pp. 2199–2210, http://dx.doi.org/
10.1520/JTE20150135. ISSN 0090-3973
ABSTRACT
Healing of asphalt mixtures has been proven to be significant, and different approaches exist
to characterize it, such as the phenomenological methods, mechanism-based, and mechanics-
based methods. To target the actual causal relationship for healing in asphalt mixtures, a new
method termed the energy-based mechanistic (EBM) approach, was previously developed by
the authors. This paper aimed at examining the applicability of the CSR test with the EBM
approach in characterizing healing of asphalt mixtures. A variety of asphalt mixtures were
selected and subjected to the CSR test in this study. The internal stress measured by the CSR
test was used in the EBM approach to generate a damage density progression curve, which
directly reflected how the damage developed and healed in the tested material. Based on this
curve, the normalized extent of healing was defined as a direct measure of healing, and the
healing curve (the normalized extent of healing versus the rest time) was defined as a
straightforward tool to qualitatively evaluate the healing ability of asphalt mixtures. To further
achieve a quantitative description of the healing ability, a healing model based on the
Ramberg-Osgood equation was developed to simulate the healing curve. The parameters in
the healing model represent the healing speed at different stages of healing (the initial
healing rate and ultimate healing rate) and the overall ability of the material to heal (the
healing scale). Both the healing curves and healing parameters can discern the difference in
the healing ability caused by the air void content, aging, temperature, and the type of asphalt
binder. In other words, the CSR test, along with the EBM approach, was able to produce a
reasonable and consistent prediction of healing for asphalt mixtures.
Keywords
healing, asphalt mixtures, creep and step-loading recovery test, energy-based mechanistic approach,
healing curve, healing parameters
2199
2200 Journal of Testing and Evaluation
Nomenclature
A ¼ the cross sectional area
cIh ¼ the initial average crack size before
healing
cNh ¼ the new average crack size after healing
DSEA ¼ the apparent dissipated strain energy
(DSE), which is calculated by integrating
the apparent creep stress and apparent
creep strain measured in the creep phase
DSET ¼ the true DSE, which is calculated by inte-
grating the true creep stress and true creep
strain in the intact material
DPSEA ¼ the apparent dissipated pseudo strain
energy (DPSE), which is calculated by
integrating the apparent creep stress and
apparent pseudo strain in the creep phase
DPSET ¼ the true DPSE, which is calculated by inte-
grating the true creep stress and true
pseudo strain in the creep phase
h ¼ the normalized extent of healing
^ ¼ the predicted healing based on three pa-
h
rameters: h_ 1 , h_ 2 , and hb
_h1 ¼ the initial healing rate, representing the
healing speed of the material at the initial
stage of healing
h_ 2 ¼ the ultimate healing rate, indicating the heal-
ing speed of the material after a long time
hb ¼ the healing scale, reflecting the overall
ability of the material to heal
MIh ¼ the number of initial cracks before healing
MNh ¼ the number of new cracks after healing
RSEA ¼ the apparent recoverable strain energy
(RSE), which is calculated by integrating
the apparent internal stress and apparent
residual strain measured in the recovery
phase
RSET ¼ the true RSE, which is calculated by inte-
grating the true internal stress and true re-
sidual strain
RPSEA ¼ the apparent recoverable pseudo strain
energy (RPSE), which is calculated by
integrating the apparent internal stress
and apparent pseudo strain in the recov-
ery phase
RPSET ¼ the true RPSE, which is calculated by inte-
grating the true internal stress and true
pseudo strain in the recovery phase
Sc ¼ the area of all the cracks on the cross
section
t ¼ the recovery time (any time in the recov-
ery phase)
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t0 ¼ the time corresponding to the end of the
creep phase
Vm ¼ the volume of the asphalt mastic in one
layer of the asphalt mixture, whose thick-
ness equals to the mean film thickness
Dt ¼ the rest time
e_r ¼ the residual strain rate in the recovery
phase
/fc ¼ the initial damage density before healing
starts, or equivalently the final damage
density at the end of the creep phase
/i ¼ the damage density at any data point i
during the recovery phase
/0 ¼ the initial damage density, which equals
the air void content
ch ¼ the surface energy for healing
rA ¼ the apparent creep stress, which is calcu-
lated by the creep load applied in the
creep phase and acts normal to the cross
section
T
r ¼ the true creep stress, which is the stress in
the intact material acting normal to the
cross section
r1 , r2 , and r3 ¼ the three steps in an increased order in
any of the seven step-loads
ri ¼ the internal stress
ra , rb , g1 , and g2 ¼ fitting parameters for the internal stress
Introduction
Healing is a counter process to cracking which alleviates crack-
ing damage and restores the strength of a damaged material.
For asphalt pavements, it has been proven that healing is a sub-
stantially important issue, and its significance has been demon-
strated in both the laboratory and the field. In Ref. [1], the
flexural beam bending test was used to show that a rest period
of 24 h can increase the fatigue life of a certain type of asphalt
mixture by more than 100 %. The same effect of healing with
respect to fatigue life was also reported after a number of rest
periods were incorporated in the fatigue testing [2]. In Ref. [3],
healing was measured by transmitting ultrasonic waves through
an asphalt film after applying a cyclic tensile load. The result
suggested that considerable healing occurred after each loading
cycle in the asphalt film. In addition to the laboratory evidence,
there are also numerous facts on the healing of asphalt mixtures
from field measurements. The data of four in-service asphalt
pavements indicated that at low loading levels, minor fatigue
cracks can completely heal so fatigue cracking did not develop
in such conditions [4]. This observation was supported by
Ref. [5] from laboratory measurements that the effect of healing

is most profound when cracks are small. In Ref. [6], persuasive
field data were reported on healing of asphalt pavements from
the surface wave measurements. The stiffness of asphalt pave-
ments were measured before and after traffic loading. The re-
covery of stiffness demonstrated that considerable healing
occurred in the pavement that had severe fatigue damage. Since
healing is found to be significant in asphalt pavements, it is
highly desired to quantify it and incorporate its contribution in
the evaluation of performance of asphalt pavements.
There are currently different approaches available to predict
healing in asphalt mixtures. One popular approach is to use the
change of a property or an index to quantify the effect of healing.
The restoration of the property/index of a damaged asphalt mix-
ture during the rest period represents the effect of healing. The
change of the property/index is measured using a repeated load
test with rest periods. The properties/indexes employed include
modulus [1,2,7] and strain energy [8,9]. This type of approach is
straightforward in describing the effect of healing, but is phe-
nomenological in nature in characterizing healing. It is not based
on the actual causes that drive the process of healing, and it does
not reflect the actual results of healing in the material.
Besides the phenomenological approach, a mechanism-
based approach has gained attention in the field of asphalt mate-
rials. This approach stems from a study on healing of polymers
[10]. According to the physical mechanisms involved in the pro-
cess of healing, healing is treated as a combination of two proc-
esses: wetting of two crack surfaces (“wetting”) and an increase
of the joint strength of the two crack surfaces (“diffusion”).
“Wetting” is a process in which contact and adhesion are gradu-
ally established between two crack surfaces. When the two crack
surfaces are in complete contact, an increase of the joint strength
occurs through a diffusion process, which involves molecular
interchange and random entanglement formation. The collective
influence of these two processes on a mechanical property is
described by a convolution integral function. This theory has
been applied to predict healing of asphalt binders [11,12].
Recently a micro-damage healing model was developed to
supplement a continuum damage mechanics-based model in
predicting fatigue life of asphalt mixtures by considering healing
[13]. A healing internal state variable was introduced to define
the density of healed cracks (i.e., healed area of cracks per unit
area of cracks). The change of this variable thus described the
progress of healing. A postulated phenomenological-based evo-
lution equation was proposed to predict the rate of the change
of the healing internal state variable. It took account of the
major factors that affect healing, including the rest period, tem-
perature, level of damage, and the history of healing.
In addition to the aforementioned approaches, mechanics-
based methods have been developed to characterize healing in
viscoelastic and visco-elasto-plastic materials. One of the pre-
cursory works studied the crack closure and bonding, namely
the direct results of healing, in linear viscoelastic materials [14].
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LUO AND LYTTON ON HEALING USING CSR TEST 2201
The interfacial force of attraction (i.e., surface energy) acting on
crack surfaces was regarded as the cause of the growth of the
contact between crack surfaces. The stress calculated from the
interfacial force of attraction and the deformation of the crack
surfaces were used to predict the rate of the growth of the con-
tact area. For asphalt mixtures, the mechanical analysis of the
healing process becomes more complicated due to: (1) visco-
elasto-plastic nature of the material; (2) a large number of pre-
existing air voids or cracks; and (3) unknown driving forces for
this process. From a mechanical point of view, healing of an
asphalt mixture is the collective behavior of all air voids or
cracks that are driven by certain stresses. In previous studies
[15,16], the authors designed the creep and step-loading recov-
ery (CSR) test and developed a mechanics-based method to
address this problem. Since healing usually accompanies the
recovery of a material, the authors proposed to study the
mechanics of healing and quantify the amount of healing from
a recovery process. Investigation of the mechanics of healing
helps identify the driving forces for healing in asphalt mixtures.
The driving forces are then used in the energy-based mechanis-
tic (EBM) approach to predict healing. The amount of healing
is quantified by the decrease of the cracked area, or damage
density as the contact between crack surfaces grows. Damage
density is the ratio of the cracked area to the cross sectional
area. As a continuation of this previous work, the damage den-
sity determined during healing is utilized to generate a healing
curve and determine healing parameters in this study. The heal-
ing curve and healing parameters are direct measures of the
ability of an asphalt mixture to heal. The objectives of this study
are to use these healing curves and healing parameters to pre-
dict healing, and examine whether the CSR test along with this
mechanics-based approach produces a reasonable and consist-
ent prediction of healing for asphalt mixtures.
The paper is organized as follows. A brief review of the
CSR test and associated mechanics-based approach is first pre-
sented in the second section. The testing and analysis methods
are applied to different types of asphalt mixtures to examine
their applicability. Details of the tests and materials used in this
study are given in the third section. Based on the testing results,
the methods to determine healing curves and healing parame-
ters are introduced in the fourth section. Then the healing
parameters of various asphalt mixtures are compared to demon-
strate the rationality of the predicted healing. The major find-
ings of this study are summarized in the last section.
Mechanistic Modeling of Healing
Using Internal Stress
Healing occurs in rest periods when the load is removed from a
damaged material. For asphalt mixtures, a recovery process also
takes place due to the viscoelastic nature of the material. In a
2202 Journal of Testing and Evaluation

rest period, the recoverable deformation of an asphalt mixture • Force equilibrium:

gradually restores with time. If the asphalt mixture is not dam-
aged (no crack growth) during loading, the recovery of the bulk rA A ¼ rT ðA  Sc Þ (1)

material is actually the recovery of its intact part. The bulk ma- • Energy balance:
terial refers to a mix of asphalt binder, aggregates, and existing
air voids or cracks; the intact part, which is called the intact DSEA ¼ DSET (2)

material, refers to the combination of asphalt binder and aggre-

gates. If the mixture is damaged, there are two simultaneous
processes during the recovery of the bulk material: recovery of
the intact material and healing of cracks. The recovery of the
intact material is defined as “true recovery,” and the recovery of
the damaged bulk material is defined as “apparent recovery.” As
a result, the recovery of undamaged asphalt mixtures is the true
recovery; the recovery of damaged mixtures is the apparent
recovery, which involves both the true recovery and healing.
The recovery of an asphalt mixture is driven by the internal
stress. Since there is no external load in the recovery phase, the
force that drives the deformation is provided by the material
itself, called internal force or internal stress. Note that the inter-
nal stress as well as the applied stress in this study is an average
stress, calculated by the force divided by the cross sectional
area. The internal stress that drives the apparent recovery is
called “apparent internal stress”; the one that drives the true
recovery is called “true internal stress.” The true internal stress
and the interfacial force of attraction, or surface energy are the
two driving forces for healing of asphalt mixtures [16]. The
interfacial force of attraction is usually measured from a surface
energy test. The internal stress is measured by the CSR test that
was designed by the authors in Ref. [15]. A typical CSR test con-
tains two phases: a creep phase under a constant creep load and
a recovery phase with several step-loads. The step-load is added
in the recovery phase to measure the internal stress. More
details of the CSR test are presented in the next section. The
true internal stresses are measured from the nondestructive
CSR test, and the apparent internal stresses are obtained from
the destructive CSR test. The nondestructive and destructive
CSR tests are analyzed by the EBM approach to predict healing
in asphalt mixtures. The EBM approach is a pure mechanical
method based on two basic mechanics principles (force equilib-
rium and energy balance) [16]. These two principles bridge the
gap between the apparent measurements from the test and the
true responses of the material. By establishing such a connec-
tion, the true responses of the material and the damage infor-
mation, such as the true stress in the intact material and
damage density, can be obtained by measuring the stress and
strain from a test. The step-by-step procedures for applying the
EBM approach to the CSR test were elaborated in Ref. [16], so
they are not repeated herein and only the key equations and
major steps are presented below.
In the creep phase of a CSR test, a force equilibrium equa-
tion and two energy balance equations are formulated according
to the EBM principles:
DPSEA ¼ DPSET (3)
The major steps of using these equations to solve for the
damage in the creep phase of a damaged asphalt mixture are as
follows:
1. Measure apparent material properties of undamaged
asphalt mixtures from the creep phase of nondestructive
CSR tests;
2. Determine true material properties of undamaged mix-
tures by Eq 1 and 2 with apparent material properties;
3. Calculate apparent and true pseudo strains using deter-
mined apparent and true material properties, respectively;
4. Calculate DPSEA of damaged asphalt mixtures from the
creep phase of destructive CSR tests;
5. Determine the true creep stress of damaged mixtures by
Eq 3; and
6. Calculate the damage density by the apparent and true
creep stresses of damaged mixtures.
The calculated damage densities with time form an evolu-
tion curve in the creep phase. The damage density at the end of
the creep phase is the initial damage density in the recovery
phase. In other words, it is the starting point for the healing
process.
In the recovery phase of a CSR test, the energy balance
equations are formulated according to the EBM principles:
RSEA ¼ RSET (4)
 
2MIh p2 c3Ih 2MNh p2 c3Nh
RPSEA Vm ¼ RPSET Vm þ RPSET 
3 3


 ch 2MIh pc2Ih  2MNh pc2Nh
(5)
The major steps of using these equations to solve for the healing
of a damaged asphalt mixture in the recovery phase are as
follows:
1. Measure the true internal stress from nondestructive CSR
tests and apparent internal stress from destructive CSR
tests;
2. Determine the true residual strain of damaged asphalt
mixtures from the recovery phase of destructive CSR tests
by Eq 4;
3. Calculate apparent and true pseudo strains in the recov-
ery phase;
4. Calculate RPSEA and RPSET using the apparent internal
stress with apparent pseudo strain and true internal stress
with true pseudo strain, respectively; and

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 LUO AND LYTTON ON HEALING USING CSR TEST 2203

TABLE 1 Types of asphalt mixtures tested by the CSR test.

Mixture Type Aggregate Asphalt Binder Air Void Content (%) Aging Period (Months) Test Temperature ( C)
AAD, 4 %, 0 Texas limestone AAD 4 0 20
AAD, 4 %, 6 6
AAD, 7 %, 0 7 0
AAD, 7 %, 6 6
AAM, 4 %, 0 AAM 4 0
AAM, 4 %, 6 6
AAM, 7 %, 0 7 0
AAM, 7 %, 6 6
NuStar, 4 %, 0, 10C Hanson limestone NuStar 4 0 10
NuStar, 4 %, 0, 20C 20
NuStar, 4 %, 0, 30C 30
NuStar, 4 %, 6, 10C 6 10
NuStar, 4 %, 6, 20C 20
NuStar, 4 %, 6, 30C 30
Valero, 4 %, 0, 10C Valero 4 0 10
Valero, 4 %, 0, 20C 20
Valero, 4 %, 0, 30C 30
Valero, 4 %, 6, 10C 6 10
Valero, 4 %, 6, 20C 20
Valero, 4 %, 6, 30C 30

5. Calculate the damage density from the recovery phase of
destructive CSR tests by Eq 5.
The calculated damage densities with time form a progres-
sion curve in the recovery phase. The starting point of this curve
is the damage density at the end of the creep phase. The differ-
ence between the starting point and an arbitrary point on the
progression curve is the amount of the damage that is restored
due to healing within this rest period.
The content presented above is a general view of the
mechanistic-based approach developed in Ref. [16] to analyze
the CSR test data. The final product is a continuous damage
density curve from the beginning of the creep phase to the end
of the recovery phase, which will be used later to generate heal-
ing curves and healing parameters. The materials and labora-
tory tests conducted in this study are first introduced in the
next section.
Materials and Laboratory Tests
Selection of materials considers the variety of material itself and
environmental conditions. The laboratory tests include the CSR
tests and the surface energy tests.
The materials selected for testing include four types of
asphalt binder and two kinds of aggregate. The four types of
asphalt binder are: the binder AAD and binder AAM from the
Strategic Highway Research Program Materials Reference
Library [17]; the binder designated “NuStar” from New Jersey;
and the binder designated “Valero” from California. The two
kinds of aggregate are the Texas limestone from San Marcos,
TX and Hanson limestone from New Braunfels, TX. The mix-
ture design in this study considers the effects of initial flaws (air
voids) and environmental conditions (aging and temperature
variation) on the healing ability of asphalt mixtures. The design
variables are chosen as two air void contents (4 and 7 %), two
aging periods (0 and 6 months), and three temperatures (10, 20,
and 30 C). The purpose of selecting different materials and
mixture design variables is to examine whether the CSR test
along with the EBM approach can discriminate the healing abil-
ity of different asphalt mixtures.
The selected materials and mixture design variables are
combined as shown in Table 1. The mixtures with binder AAD/
AAM and Texas limestone have two air void contents and two
aging periods, but tested at one temperature (20 C) due to the
material availability. The mixtures with binder NuStar/Valero
and Hanson limestone have one air void content (4 %), two
aging periods, and tested at all three temperatures. In Table 1 as
well as all other tables and figures, the number “4” or “7 %” rep-
resents the air void content; the number “0” or “6” represents
the aging period; and the number “10C”, “20C”, or “30C” repre-
sents the test temperature. For example, “NuStar, 4 %, 6, 10C”
in Table 1 indicates the asphalt binder is NuStar, the air void
content is 4 %, the aging period is 6 months, and the test tem-
perature is 10 C. The twenty kinds of asphalt mixtures listed in
Table 1 are subjected to the testing procedures introduced next.
The CSR test is conducted using the material test system
(MTS). The specimens tested by the MTS are cylindrical, which
are molded using the superpave gyratory compactor. The

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2204 Journal of Testing and Evaluation

cylindrical specimens are 102 mm in diameter and 152 mm in
height. A pair of steel end-caps are glued to the two ends of the
specimen and then connected to the MTS. Three axial linear
variable differential transformers (LVDTs) are mounted 120
apart on the middle part of the test specimen, which measure
the axial deformation of the specimen. The gage length of the
axial LVDT is 90 mm. The average of the three LVDTs is used
to calculate the average axial strain.
Every asphalt mixture specimen is subjected to two consec-
utive CSR tests: one is nondestructive and the other is destruc-
tive. An example of applied stress and measured strains of a
CSR test is shown in Fig. 1a. The step-loads are added at differ-
ent locations of the recovery phase in order to measure the in-
ternal stresses at different stages of recovery. In Fig. 1a, the
internal stresses are measured by the seven step-loads at points
a, b, c, d, e, f, and g. There are three steps in each step-load,
which cause the change of the strains at the corresponding point
in time. The strain rate may be in one of the following three
conditions, which indicates the relationship between the step-
load and the internal stress:
 e_r < 0 at r1 : r1 < ri
density continues decreasing in the recovery phase. The rate of
reduction is much larger at the beginning of the recovery phase.
Based on these damage density progression curves, healing
curves can be generated for each tested material, which is dis-
cussed as follows.
HEALING CURVE MEASURED FROM CSR TEST
The healing curve is defined as the normalized extent of healing
versus the rest time during which healing occurs. It quantifies
the amount of healing and indicates the healing ability of the
material. The normalized extent of healing is defined in the
following way:
/fc  /i
h¼ ; h 2 ½0; 100% (7)
/fc  /0
The difference between /fc and /i , i.e., /fc  /i , represents the
amount of healing that occurs from the beginning of the recov-
ery phase to the data point i. The difference between /fc and
/0 , i.e., /fc  /0 , is the maximum increase of damage density
due to crack growth in the creep phase, which represents the
maximum amount of healing that could occur in the damaged

 e_r ¼ 0 at r2 : r2 ¼ ri
 e_r > 0 at r3 : r3 > ri FIG. 1 Example of CSR test on a NuStar asphalt mixture.

According to the second condition, the internal stress is meas-

ured by the second step r2 . The internal stresses measured by
the stress and strain in Fig. 1a are a series of discrete points
shown in Fig. 1b. These data points are fitted by an exponential
model (Eq 6) to produce a continuous curve of the internal
stress versus time:
t t
ri ðt Þ ¼ ra eg1 þ rb eg2 (6)

It is worth mentioning that the CSR test shown in Fig. 1 is

destructive; a nondestructive CSR test is similar with a different
number (five) of step-loads in the recovery phase and different
steps (two) in each step-load. More details of the nondestruc-
tive/destructive CSR tests and the methods to determine the
internal stress can be found in Ref. [15].

Determination of Healing Curves

and Healing Parameters
The twenty types of asphalt mixtures listed in Table 1 are sub-
jected to the CSR test procedure introduced above. The test data
is analyzed according to the methods presented in the second
section. The final product of the analysis is a continuous dam-
age density curve for each tested specimen. Some examples are
presented in Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 2, the damage density
increases with time in the creep phase as the damage accumu-
lates in the material. After removing the creep load, the damage

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FIG. 2
Progression of damage density of asphalt
mixtures in destructive CSR test.
material. As a result, the ratio of (/fc  /i ) to (/fc  /0 )
denotes the proportion of the amount of healing that occurs to
its maximum value that could possibly occur. Such a ratio is
called the normalized extent of healing. The rest time refers to
the length of the time during which healing occurs, which is
calculated by:
Dt ¼ t  t0 ; t 2 ½t0 ; 1
A healing curve is the relationship between h and Dt. The point
of h ¼ 0 on a healing curve corresponds to /fc ¼ /i , indicating
no healing occurs. The point of h ¼ 100% corresponds to
FIG. 3 Healing curves of AAD asphalt mixtures.
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LUO AND LYTTON ON HEALING USING CSR TEST 2205
/i ¼ /0 , which implies that all of the cracking damage gener-
ated in the material is healed, or complete healing.
Figs. 3–6 present the healing curves of the 20 types of
asphalt mixtures listed in Table 1. Some qualitative observations
are made from these figures:
• From Figs. 3 and 4, the slope of the initial tangent line (as
(8)
illustrated in Fig. 3) of the healing curve decreases when
the air void content changes from 4 to 7 % for all AAD
and AAM asphalt mixtures. In addition, the 4 % mixtures
have a larger normalized extent of healing; in other
words, they heal more than the 7 % mixtures with the
same aging period.
FIG. 4 Healing curves of AAM asphalt mixtures.
2206 Journal of Testing and Evaluation
FIG. 5 Healing curves of NuStar asphalt mixtures.
• corresponding Valero mixture with the same air void
From Figs. 3–6, the slope of initial tangent line decreases
when the aging period changes from 0 month to 6
months for all AAD, AAM, NuStar, and Valero asphalt
mixtures. Moreover, all of the unaged mixtures heal more
than the aged ones with the same air void content and
temperature.
• From Figs. 5 and 6, given the same aging period, the slope
of the initial tangent line decreases when the test temper-
ature changes from 30 to 20 C and further to 10 C for all
NuStar and Valero mixtures, and the mixtures at 30 C
heal most while those at 10 C heal least.
FIG. 6 Healing curves of valero asphalt mixtures.
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FIG. 7 Illustration of healing parameters in the healing prediction model.
• From Figs. 3–6, the AAM asphalt mixture has a larger
slope of the initial tangent line and heals more than the
corresponding AAD mixture with the same air void con-
tent and aging period. The NuStar mixture has a larger
slope of the initial tangent line and heals more than the
content and aging period at the same temperature.
It can be seen that the healing curve is a good measure of
the healing ability of asphalt mixtures. It has a promising poten-
tial to discern the healing ability of different asphalt mixtures.
In the following section, a modeling technique is employed
based on the healing curve in order to achieve a quantitative
description of the healing ability of various materials.
MODELING OF MEASURED HEALING CURVE
It is observed from Figs. 3–6 that there is a rapid increase of the
measured healing in the first approximately 10 s. In other
FIG. 8 Examples of measured and predicted healing of asphalt mixtures.
 LUO AND LYTTON ON HEALING USING CSR TEST 2207

TABLE 2 Values of healing parameters in the healing prediction

model. FIG. 9 Effect of asphalt binder on healing of asphalt mixtures.

Mixture Type h_ 1 h_ 2 hb
10
AAD, 4 %, 0 0.1266 1.27  10 0.3392
AAD, 4 %, 6 0.0271 8.46  1012 0.1174
AAD, 7 %, 0 0.0929 7.21  1014 0.1997
AAD, 7 %, 6 0.0169 7.58  105 0.1022
AAM, 4 %, 0 0.1608 5.13  1010 0.5379
AAM, 4 %, 6 0.0306 7.88  1011 0.2509
AAM, 7 %, 0 0.1178 1.17  1013 0.4339
AAM, 7 %, 6 0.0171 1.03  107 0.1979
NuStar, 4 %, 0, 10C 0.0119 1.97  105 0.0749
NuStar, 4 %, 0, 20C 0.0251 1.54  106 0.0841
NuStar, 4 %, 0, 30C 0.1172 1.39  1013 0.1664
NuStar, 4 %, 6, 10C 0.0072 1.21  104 0.0245
NuStar, 4 %, 6, 20C 0.0246 6.35  1010 0.0459
NuStar, 4 %, 6, 30C 0.0392 2.51  1010 0.1381
Valero, 4 %, 0, 10C 0.0034 4.72  105 0.0307
Valero, 4 %, 0, 20C 0.0093 2.37  1010 0.0351
Valero, 4 %, 0, 30C 0.0226 1.02  107 0.0445
Valero, 4 %, 6, 10C 0.0018 1.06  107 0.0221
Valero, 4 %, 6, 20C 0.0063 4.32  105 0.0306
Valero, 4 %, 6, 30C 0.0143 1.34  10–9 0.0420

words, the healing rate is very large during this period. After
that, the healing rate gradually decreases and the change of the
measured healing is less as the rest time increases. To demon-
strate such characteristics, a model in the form of the Ramberg-
Osgood equation [18] is proposed to simulate the healing curve:
 
h_ 1  h_ 2 Dt FIG. 10 Effect of air void content on healing of asphalt mixtures.
^ ¼ h_ 2 Dt þ
h   (9)
h_ 1  h_ 2 Dt
1þ
hb

These three parameters are illustrated in Fig. 7 with the aid of a

measured healing curve. The advantage of using this prediction
model is that the healing ability of the asphalt mixture can be
readily described by these three parameters, so it is convenient
to compare and select a type of asphalt mixture with superior
healing ability.
The healing parameters in Eq 9 are determined using the
software MATLAB [19]. A plot of the measured healing by Eq 7
and the predicted healing by Eq 9 are shown in Fig. 8 for several
example mixtures. The predicted healing (labeled with “p” in
Fig. 8) matches very well with the measured healing (labeled
with “m”). The R-square statistics of the examples in Fig. 8 as
well as the rest in Table 1 are all above 0.98. The determined h_ 1 ,
h_ 2 , and hb are given in Table 2 for each type of mixture. The val-
ues of h_ 2 are much smaller, and most of them are nearly zero.
Therefore, the significant parameters in Eq 9 are h_ 1 and hb .
These two parameters are used to compare the healing ability of
these mixtures and demonstrate the effects of mixture composi-
tion, aging, and temperature, which are elaborated next.

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2208 Journal of Testing and Evaluation
FIG. 11 Effect of temperature on healing of asphalt mixtures.
COMPARISON OF HEALING BY HEALING PARAMETERS
The initial healing rate and healing scale are first used to exam-
ine the variation of the healing ability that is caused by different
types of asphalt binder, as shown in Fig. 9. Comparing AAD
and AAM mixtures, which have the same aggregate, both the
initial healing rate and healing scale of AAM mixtures are larger
than those of the AAD mixtures. Therefore, it concludes that
the AAM mixtures have better healing ability than AAD mix-
tures. This conclusion is in accord with the findings in the pub-
lished literature [20]. Similarly, comparing NuStar and Valero
mixtures, which have the same aggregate, the NuStar mixtures
have better healing ability than Valero mixtures.
The effect of the air void content on the healing ability is
examined by comparing the healing parameters of mixtures
with 4 % air void content to those with 7 %, which is shown in
Fig. 10. It suggests that the asphalt mixtures with 4 % air void
content always heal faster and heal more than those with 7 %
air void content.
The change of the healing ability due to the change of tem-
perature is investigated by comparing the healing parameters at
10, 20, and 30 C. The results shown in Fig. 11 indicate that the
temperature has a significant influence on the healing ability of
asphalt mixtures. More specifically, the healing ability is the
highest at 30 C and it decreases rapidly when the temperature
decreases. Healing of asphalt mixtures at 10 C is much slower
and the amount is less. These facts can also be observed from
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FIG. 12 Effect of aging on healing of asphalt mixtures.
Figs. 5 and 6. The shape of the healing curve changes consider-
ably from 30 to 20 C and then to 10 C.
It is known that aging also plays an important role in evalu-
ating the healing ability of asphalt mixtures. The effect of aging
is presented in Fig. 12. Both the initial healing rate and healing
scale decrease as the aging period increases, regardless of the
type of asphalt binder, air void content, and temperature. For
some asphalt mixtures—for example, AAD and AAM
mixtures—there is a substantial reduction of the healing param-
eters from the unaged to aged condition. This demonstrates
that these asphalt mixtures are more sensitive to aging in terms
of the healing ability.
An application of these findings is that a mixture with a
higher initial healing rate and healing scale should be selected
for heavy traffic conditions. An additional application is to
choose a mixture which has a higher healing scale at elevated
temperatures or in pavements suffering from a fast aging
process.
Conclusions
The paper presents the methods and results of characterizing
healing of various asphalt mixtures using the specially-designed
CSR test. The primary goal of a CSR test is to measure the inter-
nal stress during the recovery of a material, which is responsible

for the healing process. With the measured internal stress, the
data of the CSR test can be analyzed using the EBM approach
to obtain the damage density progression curve. This curve
directly reflects how the damage develops and heals in an
asphalt mixture subjected to the CSR test. The following points
are emphasized.
• The normalized extent of healing produced by the dam-
age density progression curve is a direct measure of the
healing in asphalt mixtures. The relationship between the
normalized extent of healing and the rest time defines the
healing curve of an asphalt mixture.
• By examining healing curves of a variety of asphalt mix-
tures, a healing curve can discern the difference in the
healing ability caused by the air void content, aging, tem-
perature, and the type of asphalt binder. The healing
curve is a straightforward tool to qualitatively evaluate
the healing ability of asphalt mixtures.
• A healing model based on the Ramberg-Osgood equation
is developed to simulate the healing curve measured from
the CSR test. The healing model has three parameters to
represent the healing speed at different stages of healing
(the initial healing rate and ultimate healing rate) and the
overall ability of the material to heal (the healing scale).
• Fitting the healing model to the measured healing curves
of various asphalt mixtures yields the values of healing
parameters. For a CSR test, the significant parameters are
the initial healing rate and healing scale.
•
By examining the initial healing rate and healing scale of
different asphalt mixtures, these two parameters can
reflect the change of the healing ability with the change of
an influential factor, including the type of asphalt binder,
air void content, temperature, and aging. An asphalt mix-
ture with better and more asphalt binder at higher tem-
peratures with less aging possesses superior healing
ability; namely heals faster and heals more.
• Based on the healing curves and healing parameters,
which are essentially derived from the damage density
progression curve, the CSR test along with the EBM
approach is able to produce a reasonable and consistent
prediction of healing for asphalt mixtures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The writers acknowledge the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) for the financial support. Special thanks are to Jeff
Perry and David Zeig from the Texas A&M Transportation
Institute for their help in laboratory testing and specimen
preparation.
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LUO AND LYTTON ON HEALING USING CSR TEST 2209
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