This paper consists of three parts, which are related to a newfatigue characterisation method that was developed at the Road& Railroad Research Laboratory (RRRL) of the Delft Universityof Technology. The basic idea behind this method is the use ofParis' law to determine the fatigue properties of an asphalt mix.In the first part of the paper the background of this method willbe discussed. In this section a theoretical justification of theuse of Paris' law to describe fatigue cracking will be presented,as well as experimental data to support that justification. Inthe second part of the paper this method will be described. Anoverview of the types of tests as well as the data processingprocedure will be presented. For a more elaborate presentationof the complete method, the reader is referred to Jacobs (1995),Erkens et al. (1995) and Sabha et al. (1995). In the third sectionthe modifications that resulted from additional research at theRRRL, intended to modify the procedure for application on anotherasphalt mix are discussed. From this paper it can be concludedthat crack growth covers a major part of the fatigue process.Thus, Paris' crack growth law provides an approximation of theoverall fatigue life. Furthermore, it is shown that the parametersin the crack growth law can be determined using simple tests.The fatigue characteristics that were predicted using this approach,agreed well with actual fatigue data.