Within the framework of a public-private cooperative research project, a reference section of grave-emulsion (GE) was laid in 2008. During its construction, various sensors and gauges were placed inside the layer in order to continuously record temperature, moisture content and deformations. In addition, special gauges were installed to record the strains in the GE under passing heavy vehicles. The section monitoring also includes deflection, radius of curvature and permanent deformation measurements, and core sampling. In the laboratory, several properties have been measured on both fresh and cured mixtures, as well as on samples cored from the site. The main material’s properties considered are compaction degree, moisture content and stiffness modulus. Moreover, the extracted binder properties (penetration and softening temperature) have been evaluated. The section monitoring shows the satisfactory performance of the GE under traffic over the first 3 years and its rapid cohesion build-up. The GE strengthening effect has been accurately assessed. The response of the inlaid sensors and gauges provides an improved understanding of how the GE layer behaves, cures and consolidates. In the laboratory, a major issue is the material’s accelerated curing. An adequate curing procedure has been defined for small specimens ; research goes on as regards larger ones. The main phenomena observed are the sharp increase in density, the initial increase then stability in stiffness and the binder hardening. All these results will contribute to improve behaviour modelling and pavement design.
