Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to experimentally establish quantitative indicators, relationships and dependencies on the depth of characteristics (amount, duration and minimum temperature) of freeze-thaw cycles of a road in the climatic conditions the Almaty city located in the south-eastern region of Kazakhstan. Monitoring of temperature in the road was carried out using a special measuring system. It was found that the largest amount of FTCs, equal to 76, occurs on the pavement surface and decreases with depth (up to 6 at a depth of 28 cm); the absolute value of the lowest minimum temperature of FTCs also decreases with depth: -17.9 °C on the pavement surface and –0.3 °C at a depth of 69 cm. The depth of 21.5 cm is designated as the boundary, above which the FTCs characteristics are determined by daily temperature fluctuations and below which they are determined by seasonal and annual temperature fluctuations; at the boundary depth the maximum, minimum and average durations of FTCs have the greatest values (1039.5, 3.3 and 521.4, respectively). In the region under consideration and in others with similar climatic conditions, when assessing the strength and durability of asphalt concretes taking into account cyclic freezing and thawing, it is recommended to assign the amount and minimum temperature of FTCs according to the results obtained in the paper; the duration of FTCs is taken to be equal to 20 h; it is recommended to conduct laboratory tests on asphalt concrete samples when they are fully saturated with water.