Innovative materials for asphalt pavements Introduction

An asphalt pavement structure is made up of multiple layers. Conventionally, soil, granular material, asphalt binder are used for construction of asphalt pavements. Various other admixtures are also used. Economical, environmental, social and safety issues call for use of innovations in road construction technology. Innovations are possible in the development and usage of various pavement materials, as well as in design and construction applications. This paper presents a brief review on modern and upcoming pavement materials in asphalt pavement construction.

Innovative pavement materials

Building a road infrastructure project may involve the following considerations. Structural considerations Functional considerations Economical considerations Environmental considerations Construction considerations Safety considerations Aesthetic considerations

The application potential of various innovative materials, as per the above classification scheme, have been discussed briefly in the following.

From structural considerations A pavement needs to be structurally safe against various modes of failures during its design life. Thus, it is desirable to use materials which improve the structural capacity of the pavement system. Fiber reinforced asphalt mix (Maurer and Malasheskie 1989; Serfass and Samanos 1996; Abtahi et al. 2010), geosynthetics (IFAI 2010, Saathoff and Vollmert 2010), stabilizers (Ingles and Metcaf 1972; Hausman 1990; Little and Nair 2009), asphalt binder modifiers (RILEM 1998; Asphalt Handbook 2000; Roque et al. 2005) etc. are examples of such materials. Fiber reinforced asphalt mix is made by mixing fibers (for example, polypropylene, polyester, asbestos, cellulose, carbon, glass, steel etc.) to the asphalt mix. It improves

resistance against aging, fatigue cracking, moisture damage, bleeding, reflection cracking etc. (Serfass and Samanos 1996; Maurer and Malasheskie 1989). Geosynthetics are a class of materials which includes geogrids, geotextiles, geomembranes, geonets etc. Geogrids are mainly used for reinforcement (ETL 2002; Pryce 1999; Giroud and Han 2004), geotextiles provides the benefits of reinforcement (Hausmann 1987), drainage, separation and filtration (Holtz 1998), geomembranes can be used as moisture barriers (Holtz et al. 1998). Stabilizers are used to enhance the properties of soil or granular material by physical or chemical interaction. Similarly, various fillers, fibres, extenders, polymers, anti-oxidants, plastics etc. are used to enhance the properties of asphalt binder (RILEM 1998; Asphalt Handbook 2000; Goel and Das 2004; Roque et al. 2005). From functional considerations For pavement to be functionally serviceable it must provide durable travel surface with appropriate skid resistance. Apart from the usage of conventional materials in making pavement surface, application of slag aggregate (Wu et al. 2007; Emery 2010) is an example of a new material used for improving the skid resistance. Asphalt pavement surface being good absorbent of heat energy, it gives rise to heat island effect in urban areas (Rosenfeld 1998; Pomerantz et al. 2000a). Suitable materials (for example, reflective ceramic paint, light colored aggregates and colored asphalt) are used in asphalt pavement so as to avoid this effect (Kinouchi et al. 2010) this is termed as cool pavement. Further, liquid flowing through tubes embedded in asphalt layer can extract this heat which can even be used for heating purpose elsewhere (Mallick et al. 2008, Wu et al. 2009). The asphalt layer is made thermally conductive by using suitable fibres (Wu et al. 2009, Liu et al. 2010) for this purpose. During extreme winters, the moisture present in pavement may freeze. Thermally insulating paint is an emerging material which can prevent this to happen. Use of geosynthetics and porous pavements may help in better drainage of pavements. Proper drainage system makes the pavement durable and keeps surface dry.

From economical considerations Road building projects involve huge investment of money. Use of innovative materials can bring down the cost of road construction. Example of such materials may be use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in recycling process, geosynthetics, industrial and domestic waste materials etc. In the asphalt recycling process, asphalt materials collected from old and deteriorated asphalt pavements are mixed in suitable proportion along with the new aggregates and virgin asphalt binder to obtain the recycled mix (McDaniel et al. 2000; Karlsson and Isacsson 2006). Sometimes rejuvenators are also used to achieve the desirable mechanical and performance related properties of asphalt mix (Karlsson and Isacsson 2006).

Attempts have been made to use various industrial and domestic wastes for road construction projects (Sherwood 1995; Nunes et al. 1996). This is helpful in terms of tackling environmental pollution and waste disposal problems. Further, it may economize the project cost. Some examples of use of industrial wastes in road construction are nonferrous slag (Mroueh and Wahlstrm 2002), fly ash (Mroueh and Wahlstrm 2002; Wen et al. 2003), steel slag (Hunt and Boyle 2000), glass waste (Larsen 1989; Hughes 1990; Murphy et al. 1991), colliery spoil, crumb rubber (Shuler 1985; Robert et al. 1989), China clay, marble dust (Okagbue and Onyeobi 1999), construction and demolition waste (Sherwood 1995), quarry waste (Rezende and Carvalho 2003) etc. Some of the examples of domestic wastes that are used in road construction are incinerated residue, sewage sludge, glass and ceramic, roofing shingles etc (ETL 1999). Some of these materials are used as admixtures to binders, and some are used as partial replacement of aggregates. From environmental considerations Some examples of innovative materials from environmental considerations are use of RAP in recycled mix, industrial and domestic wastes, photocatalytic materials, poroelastic materials etc. The first two materials have already been introduced briefly in the preceding paragraphs. Photocatalytic materials help removing the air pollutants by decomposing them in the presence of light and hence removing the pollutants at the source itself (Beeldens 2010, Fujishima et al. 2000; Frazer 2001; NR2C 2008; Chen and Liu 2010). Thus, materials have self-cleansing effect on pavement surface. Oxides of manganese, titanium and cobalt are found to be photocatalytically active (Layton 2010). Poroelastic materials have pores and low dynamic stiffness. It can be made using rubber particles bounded with suitable binder such as polyurethane (NR2C 2008) or asphalt binder (Nilsson et al. 2008). Since these materials have voids, these act as efficient noise reducers.

From construction considerations Innovative construction techniques can significantly affect the durability, economy and man-hours needed during the construction. Some of the examples of application of innovative materials in construction are foamed asphalt, emulsified asphalt, warm asphalt, cement grouted bituminous macadam (Goel and Das 2004) etc. Foamed asphalt is manufactured by injecting water into hot asphalt binder. Foamed asphalt utilizes the benefits of a cold mixing method (like emulsified asphalt mix) and it has good flexibility and fatigue resistance (Ramanujam and Kendall 1999, Ramanujam and Jones 2007) and less temperature susceptibility (Jenkins et al. 2003).

Warm asphalt is manufactured at relatively lower temperature than conventional hot mix asphalt (Koenders et al. 2000, Button et al. 2007; Chowdhury and Button 2008). This is achieved by using additives to asphalt binder or using foamed asphalt, which improves the workability of the mix. In cement grouted bituminous macadam (Oliveira et al. 2008 and 2009) a porous asphalt skeleton is filled with cementious grout. It provides both flexibility and rigidity to the mix, thus incorporating the advantages of both asphalt and concrete mixes. From safety considerations A road has to be safe for its users as well as for the construction workers. Good riding surface, sufficient skid resistance, appropriate visibility (Rosenfeld et al. 1998; Pomerantz et al. 2000b) are some of the traits needed for a safe pavement. Innovative materials for achieving good skid resistance and surface drainability have already been discussed in the previous sections. Ready mixes for pothole repair (FHWA 1999) and self illuminating pavement marking (NCHRP 2008) are also examples of some innovative materials from safety considerations. From aesthetic considerations Colored asphalt (Lin and Luo 2004), light reflecting paint (Kinouchi 2010) are examples of some of the materials which can be used to improve aesthetic look of the pavement. These are also helpful in improving safety (Pomerantz et al. 2000b) and heat island effect (Pomerantz et al. 2000a). Closing remarks The present paper has discussed briefly the various innovative materials for asphalt pavement construction. The list presented is neither exhaustive nor prioritized, and newer materials are being added to the existing list continuously. These innovative materials have immense potential in terms of structural, environmental, construction, safety and aesthetic aspects of road building technology, and these need to be explored further so as to develop a sustainable road infrastructure. References
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