Evaluation of fatigue behavior of asphalt binders containing reclaimed asphalt binder using simplified viscoelastic continuum damage approach Mahmoud Ameri, Ali Mansourkhaki ⇑ , Daryoosh Daryaee School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran highlights  Fatigue behavior of RAB-containing binders was evaluated based on S-VECD theory.  There was a unique correlation between PV and N f50 in RAB-containing binders.  There was a unique correlation between G R and N f50 in RAB-containing binders.  There was a strong correlation between G R and PV in RAB-containing binders.  The number of cycles corresponding to DPSE max was well correlated to N f50 . article info Article history: Received 27 August 2018 Received in revised form 28 December 2018 Accepted 3 January 2019 Keywords: RAB Fatigue failure S-VCED Plateau value Pseudo strain abstract Several fatigue damage analysis approaches have been introduced for asphalt binders and mixtures. In this study, using three modifiers including softer bitumen, a rejuvenator and waste polymer modified bitumen, fatigue behavior of RAB-containing binder mixes was evaluated based on the simplified vis- coelastic continuum damage mechanics (S-VECD). In addition, correlations between the S-VECD param- eters and the other fatigue failure criteria were investigated. For this purpose, the time sweep test was used to evaluate fatigue behavior of various asphalt binders in controlled-strain mode. Results showed that the rejuvenator and softer bitumen had the greatest effect in terms of prioritization on the improve- ment of the fatigue resistance of the RAB-containing binder mixes. Moreover, the results showed that good unique relationships between plateau value (PV) and N f50 and between rate of change of total released pseudo strain energy (G R ) and N f50 were established in the RAB-containing binder mixes. Furthermore, there was a good relationship between the two concepts of the dissipated energy approach used for determination of the PV and the dissipated pseudo strain energy approach which used for cal- culation of the G R values. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction One of the main distresses in asphalt concrete pavements is fatigue cracking [1]. Various factors such as asphalt binder affect fatigue failure and damage of asphalt mixtures. Research showed that fatigue resistance of asphalt binder can significantly affect overall fatigue performance of asphalt mixtures [1]. Some researchers revealed that the results of binder fatigue tests may be used to estimate fatigue life of HMA mixtures [2]. Several test procedures have been proposed for bitumen fatigue behavior anal- ysis [3]. In the Strategic Highways Research Program (SHRP), G * . sind was introduced as the material performance characteristics against the fatigue phenomenon [2]. Many researchers expressed that G * .sind is not a good and reliable parameter for evaluating fati- gue resistance of asphalt binders [4,5]. To develop test procedures which can accurately delineate fatigue behavior of binders, the time sweep and linear amplitude sweep (LAS) tests were intro- duced [6,7]. The time sweep test applies repeated cyclic loading to binder samples by using the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) at a constant frequency [8,9]. Moreover, several fatigue damage analysis approaches have been introduced for asphalt binders and mixtures [10]. The phenomenological model which is based on the correlation between strain or stress and fatigue life, is the most common model to evaluate fatigue performance of asphalt materials [11]. Fatigue life in this model is calculated based on 50% reduction in initial stiffness as the failure criterion. The phe- nomenological model is highly dependent on mixture type and mode of loading [11]. Dissipated energy approach is one of the alternatives for analysis of fatigue behavior of asphalt materials https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.01.021 0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mkhaki@iust.ac.ir (A. Mansourkhaki). Construction and Building Materials 202 (2019) 374–386 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat