In China, rutting is one of the main damage types of high-grade highway asphalt pavement. It not only directly affects the smoothness and performance of the pavement, but also seriously endangers the traffic safety. As the application of load mode can fully simulate the actual stress state of pavement, rutting test has become the most commonly used indoor test to evaluate the anti rutting performance of asphalt mixture in China.

Meanwhile, the high-temperature stability is one of the important indicators of asphalt mixture pavement performance, which is mainly evaluated by wheel tracking tester at present. However, the wheel tracking tester, test method and evaluation indicator used in different countries are different.

At present, the commonly used test methods and equipments include French asphalt pavement rutting test (PRT), German Hamburg wheel tracking test (HWTD), American asphalt pavement analyzer test (APA) and Chinese asphalt mixture rutting test, etc.

T0766-201X asphalt mixture rutting test (Hamburg Tracking) is added to JTG E20-2019 highway engineering asphalt and asphalt mixture test specification (Draft) in 2019, which is mainly used to determine the rutting resistance and water sensitivity of asphalt mixture. Meanwhile, the permanent deformation rate of asphalt mixture under the action of moving and concentrated load can be tested by reciprocating rolling of asphalt mixture with test wheel under water bath method.

Compared with the commonly used rutting test in China, Hamburg wheel tracking test specimens can be indoor plate specimens, and also the actual pavement core drilling specimens on site. In this way, we can make a more direct evaluation of performance of the asphalt mixture actually used. In practice, it can provide the most reliable data support for the evaluation of pavement condition and maintenance plan.

For asphalt mixture, Hamburg wheel tracking test can make a good evaluation on the modification effect of asphalt mixture. It has a good effect to distinguish the mixture with higher rigidity of modifier. Especially in the evaluation of the modification effect of asphalt mixture, Hamburg wheel tracking test can make a good distinction between asphalt mixture with various gradation types, such as whether the modifier is added or not, whether the mixture stiffness is large or not.

In the aspect of water stability, Hamburg wheel tracking test can highly simulate the condition and state of actual road surface in water damage. Thus, the formation and development of water damage of asphalt mixture with various materials and different gradations are obtained. And the advantages and disadvantages of water resistance are compared. Compared with the ordinary immersion rutting test, Hamburg wheel tracking test can evaluate the water stability of asphalt mixture more effectively through the dynamic test method.

It can be seen that the popularization and promotion of Hamburg wheel tracking test can better measure the deformation sensitivity of asphalt mixture, evaluate the anti rutting performance of asphalt mixture, and guide the material mix design.  At the same time, through the core drilling sampling of the asphalt pavement on site, the core samples are analyzed, and the Hamburg wheel tracking test is applied to evaluate the high temperature anti rutting performance of the asphalt pavement, so as to analyze the causes of the rutting of the asphalt pavement, which can provide guidance for the prevention and maintenance of the rutting disease of the asphalt pavement in the future.