AI tools secure data underpinning proposed ASTM D04 standard

Sources: ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa.

**Humboldt Manufacturing’s Lottman Breaking Head performs D 8225’s Indirect Tensile Cracking Test (IDEAL-CT).**

Members of ASTM Committee D04 on Road and Paving Materials’ Subcommittee D04.26 on Fundamental/Mechanistic Tests are developing Method for AI-Powered IDEAL-E* Test, which leverages machine learning methods to economize and expedite the Dynamic Modulus (E*) measurement at the heart of mechanistic-empirical pavement design practice. The proposed WK95270 standard uses a modified version of D 8225, Standard Test Method for Determination of Cracking Tolerance Index of Asphalt Mixture Using the Indirect Tensile Cracking Test at Intermediate Temperature.

“Generating test data for dynamic modulus is difficult; generating test data for the modified ASTM D 8225 test is relatively easy,” says WK95270 co-author Richard Steger, Asphalt Materials and Sustainability platform lead for South Carolina-based chemical specialist Ingevity. “AI and neural networks allow us the ability to connect the two methods.”