Fatigue and Rutting Performance of FAA and Conventional Asphalt Mixture Systems

ABSTRACT This study evaluates the laboratory fatigue and rutting performance of two specification‐compliant asphalt mixture systems: an FAA‐compliant airfield mixture designed according to FAA AC 150/5370‐10H and a conventional highway mixture designed according to the Turkish General Directorate of Highways requirements. The FAA mixture used basalt aggregate and SBS‐modified binder, whereas the conventional mixture used limestone aggregate and neat binder. Both mixtures were designed using the Superpave volumetric method and tested with indirect tensile fatigue and repeated creep (flow number) tests. Under the adopted laboratory conditions, the FAA‐compliant mixture showed approximately 20% higher initial stiffness, 3.4 times longer fatigue life, and 6.8 times higher flow number than the conventional highway mixture. It also exhibited lower permanent strain accumulation and lower power model intercept and slope values, indicating reduced early deformation and a slower rate of strain growth. The differences in initial stiffness, fatigue life, and flow number were statistically significant ( p < 0.001). Because aggregate type, binder type, binder content, gradation, volumetric properties, and test conditions differed between the two mixtures, the results should be interpreted as a system‐level comparison of two practical mixture frameworks rather than the isolated effect of FAA mix design.