Enhancing Cracking Resistance in Semi-Flexible Pavements Using an Interfacial Immersion Method

Semi-flexible pavement (SFP) is a composite structure that combines an asphalt mixture skeleton with cementitious grout, providing excellent load-bearing capacity and rutting resistance. However, cracking is a primary failure mode in SFP, due to the numerous asphalt-grout interfaces within SFP. To enhance the cracking resistance of SFP, an interfacial immersion method is proposed to immerse the porous asphalt mixture (PAM) specimens using a silane coupling agent (SCA) in this paper. Compared to traditional methods. this method directly improves the crack resistance of SFP by strengthening the interface. Three strengths of grout materials were applied to investigate the cracking resistance of SFP through the dynamic modulus and four-point bending fatigue tests after the interface modification. Experimental results indicate that the proposed interfacial immersion method can improve the stiffness performance of SFP, with specimens treated with an interface modifier showing a higher dynami...