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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, Carrera 1 Este # 19A-40, Edicio ML, Room ML323, Bogot D.C., Colombia
Instituto de Desarrollo Urbano-IDU, Calle 22 # 6-27, Research & Development Division, Bogot D.C., Colombia
Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad del Magdalena, Carrera 32 # 22-08, Santa Marta D.T.C.H., Magdalena, Colombia
d
Texas Transportation Institute (TT), Texas A&M University, CI/TTI Building, Room 508, 3135 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA
b
c
h i g h l i g h t s
" Moisture damage resistance of three ne WMA mixtures and a control-HMA was evaluated.
" A fracture micromechanical model was used to quantify moisture damage in the mixtures.
" The retained fatigue life of the WMA ne mixtures after moisture conditioning was also evaluated.
" Two out of the three WMA ne mixtures were more affected by water than the control-HMA.
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 17 January 2012
Received in revised form 19 March 2012
Accepted 25 April 2012
Available online 26 May 2012
Keywords:
Warm mix asphalt (WMA)
Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA)
Moisture damage
Fracture mechanics model
a b s t r a c t
Warm mix asphalt (WMA) materials are asphalt mixtures fabricated with recently developed technologies designed to reduce the temperatures required to produce and compact traditional hot mix asphalt
(HMA) mixtures. This study evaluates the moisture susceptibility of three WMA mixtures. The analysis
is based on a viscoelastic-fracture model, which input parameters include results from the relaxation
modulus and the Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) test conducted on specimens representing the
ne matrix portion of the actual mixtures, and from surface free energy tests. The results suggest that
moisture caused more damage in two out of the three evaluated WMA ne mixtures in comparison to
the damage observed in the control-HMA specimens. The results also reveal that the analysis should
include not only the reduction caused by moisture of certain selected performance parameters, but the
actual values of these parameters.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
During the last decades, an increasing concern for the preservation of natural resources has led to the pursuit of alternatives to reduce the production of harmful emissions and energy consumption
in several industries. The paving industry is not the exception. Traditional hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures are produced at temperatures ranging from 135 to 160 C. However, at such elevated
temperatures different emissions and fumes are generated, contributing to environmental contamination. Within this context,
warm mix asphalt (WMA) technologies are the result of several efforts directed to identify more sustainable technologies that can be
used for the construction of road infrastructure. A brief description
of the characteristics of WMA technologies, as well as a summary
Corresponding author. Tel.: +57 1 3324312; fax: +57 1 3324313.
E-mail address: scaro@uniandes.edu.co (S. Caro).
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.04.035
of some previous research devoted to evaluate the mechanical performance and the moisture damage susceptibility of WMA mixtures is subsequently presented.
1.1. WMA technologies
The main objective of WMA technologies is to reduce the mixing and compaction temperatures currently required for HMA mixtures. This is achieved by using different modication technologies
that act on the asphalt binder through different mechanisms (e.g.,
reduction of the viscosity of the asphalt binder, increase in lubricity, etc.), permitting the full coating of the aggregates and appropriate workability conditions at temperatures that are typically
2030 C below those used for HMA mixtures [1]. Some proved
benets of WMA technologies include the reduction in energy
consumption during the production of the mixtures (up to 40%
compared to those used for HMA mixtures), the reduction in the
461
462
dr
AJ R n
dN
dN
W R a b LnN
It is expected that moisture will produce a reduction in the fatigue life of the FAM specimens. Therefore, larger values of R.F. are
associated with mixtures that are more resistant to moisture damage, since they have a larger retained fatigue life. It is important to
mention that although the fatigue life of the material is not an input parameter of the fracture model, it can be easily quantied
from the test required to determine the parameter b of the model
(i.e., the rate of change of the dissipated pseudostrain energy with
the number of loading cycles). This aspect will be further treated in
Section 5.1.
This work studied the values of M.R.(N) and R.F. for the three different WMA technologies, and compared them with those obtained
for the control-HMA ne mixture.
4. Materials
4.1. WMA technologies evaluated
The WMA technologies selected to produce WMA mixtures were: (1) AsphaMin, (2) Evotherm, and (3) Sasobit. These technologies are within the ve most
commonly used WMA modiers in the USA [24], and they represent the three
groups of WMA technologies described in Section 1.1.
Aspha-Min is a nely powdered synthetic zeolite (sodium aluminum silicate
hydrate) which has been hydro-thermally crystallized [6,17]. Zeolites are framework silicates whose structure contains large vacant spaces that allow the presence
of relatively large molecules and cation groups, such as water [6]. When AsphaMin is added into the mixture with the hot asphalt binder and aggregates, at temperatures above 100 C, the heat gradually releases the water contained by the zeolites in the way of steam, which generates a volume expansion of the asphalt binder
leading to foam asphalt. This foaming effect reduces the viscosity of the asphalt binder, enhancing aggregate coating.
On the other hand, Evotherm is a chemical package that includes additives for
improving aggregate coating and mixture workability, adhesion promoters, and cationic emulsication agents [18]. This package is delivered as an emulsion that permits a reduction of approximately 35 C in the temperatures required for the
mixture fabrication. According to the producer, this chemical package promotes a
reduction in the internal friction between the aggregates and the asphalt binder
at lower temperatures, without affecting the viscosity of the binder.
463
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. (a) FAM compacted specimen (by the Superpave gyratory compactor), and
(b) cored FAM specimens (50 mm in height by 12.5 mm in diameter).
on the FAM cylindrical specimens under strain-controlled conditions using the set up conguration presented in Fig. 2. The
test protocol a non-standardized procedure has been extensively and successfully used in previous studies [29,33] and
includes two different phases. In the initial phase, the test is
conducted at a low strain level (6.5 103%) during a 2-min
period, and is used to determine the linear viscoelastic material
properties of the FAM specimens (i.e., complex modulus, G, and
phase angle, d). The second phase fatigue testing consist of a
similar procedure, but at a higher strain level (i.e., 0.15%). Under
this strain level, the specimen deteriorates with the progression
of load applications or number of load cycles, N, which is
reected in the fact that G decreases and d increases with time.
This stage of the test nalizes when the sample fails, which is
detected by an abrupt and simultaneous decrease in both G
and d.
Information from the second stage of this test is used to obtain:
(1) the rate of dissipated pseudostrain energy (which is related to
the parameter b in Eq. (3)) and (2) the number of cycles to failure
for the specimen, or fatigue life, Nf. Fig. 3 presents a typical result of
the second stage of the DMA testing, where the failure of the specimen is easily identied.
5. Experimental procedures
This section describes the testing procedures required to obtain
the input parameters for the computation of the crack growth index (DR(N); Eq. (3)), as well as the fatigue life values of the FAM
specimens.
5.1. Test procedures to quantify viscoelastic and failure properties of
FAM specimens
A rheometer (TA-series AR 2000) was used to characterize the
viscoelastic material properties of the cylindrical FAM specimens.
Fig. 2 illustrates the conguration of the rheometer and a FAM
specimen ready to be tested. All tests described in this section were
conducted at room temperature, and a total of four FAM specimens
were used for each test on every ne mixture evaluated.
Two different tests were conducted on the cylindrical FAM
specimens using this rheometer:
Gt G0 G1 t m
where G1 included in Eq. (3) and the slope of the relaxation curve, m, are tting constants. The parameter n in Eq. (3)
can be found from m, by applying the following relationship:
n = 1 + 1/m [30].
Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) test for FAM materials: This
test consists of applying a dynamic shear oscillation loading
LW 0:5
DGf 2cLW
2cA cS 0:5 2cA cS 0:5
A cS
Table 1
Characteristics of the evaluated mixtures.
Mixture
Aggregate
Asphalt Binder
Dosage
Control-HMA mixture
Aspha-Min-WMA mixture
Evotherm-WMA mixture
Sasobit-WMA mixture
Limestone
Limestone
Limestone
Limestone
PG
PG
PG
PG
64-22
64-22
64-22
64-22
464
(a)
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) Rheometer with the required geometry conguration, and (b) FAM
specimen set up for testing.
Complex Modulus, G*
(108 Pa)
Table 5 presents the SFE results for the aggregate, neat asphalt
binder, and asphalt binder with WMA additives. These values were
used to compute the work of adhesion for the asphalt binder
aggregate interfaces (DGf) by means of Eq. (9).
3.0
100
2.5
80
2.0
Phase angle
60
1.5
1.0
Complex Modulus
40
20
0.5
0.0
0.0E+00 5.0E+03 1.0E+04 1.5E+04 2.0E+04 2.5E+04 3.0E+04 3.5E+04
Fig. 3. Typical results of a DMA fatigue test at a constant strain level of 0.15%.
465
Meaning
Test required
Observations
G1
Relaxation modulus
GR
DG f
The tests allow computing the surface free energy (SFE) components
of both materials, which are later used to compute the work of
adhesion DGf (Eq. (9))
Strain-controlled oscillation test at a 0.15% strain level (Eq. (4))
Table 3
Average linear viscoelastic properties and parameters (Table 2) of FAM specimens in dry condition.
Test
Aspha-Min
Parameter
Evotherm
Sasobit
Control-HMA
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Relaxation test
m
n
G1 (107 Pa)
0.29
4.52
7.4
2.12 102
2.62 101
1.56
0.57
2.77
6.43
2.12 102
6.65 102
4.21
0.57
2.76
10.9
4.58 102
1.39 101
1.01
0.41
3.7
12.7
1.52 101
1.15 100
5.6
b
GR (108 Pa)
Nf (103 cycles)
53
3.98
141.2
11
0.25
35.9
44
3.85
130.8
13
0.48
12.8
67
4.64
49.7
12
0.63
26.9
88
4.26
43.6
22
0.60
6.4
Table 4
Average linear viscoelastic properties and parameters (Table 2) of FAM specimens in wet condition.
Test
Aspha-Min
Parameter
Mean
Evotherm
r
2
Sasobit
Mean
2
Control-HMA
Mean
Mean
Relaxation test
m
n
G1 (107 Pa)
0.69
2.47
5.78
9.19 10
1.98 101
1.87
0.67
2.50
6.72
3.46 10
7.51 102
0.28
0.59
2.78
11.3
0.16
0.49
0.87
0.56
2.80
8.00
4.04 102
1.29 101
0.76
b
GR (108 Pa)
Nf (103 cycles)
45
3.10
30.3
7
0.28
17.1
40
3.49
92.5
10
0.27
38.5
69
4.06
37.4
16
0.52
14.4
56
3.31
19.7
4
0.20
9.9
Table 5
SFE components for aggregate and asphalt binders (values in ergs/cm2).
cLW
c+
c
cAB
SFE
Limestone
Aggregate
50.33
3.45
268.95
60.92
111.25
PG
PG
PG
PG
Asphalt binder
20.05
38.24
42.72
44.35
1.99
0.00
0.15
0.12
17.94
16.72
8.95
14.81
11.95
0.00
2.32
2.67
32.00
38.24
45.04
47.02
64-22
64-22 + Aspha-Min
64-22 + Evotherm
64-22 + Sasobit
466
(a)
(b)
12
10
Evotherm
Aspha-Min
10
Sasobit
Sasobit
Evotherm
Control
Control
Aspha-Min
4
2
0
0
0
25,000
50,000
75,000
100,000
125,000
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
Fig. 4. Average results of DR(N) as a function of N for (a) dry- and (b) wet-condition (the curves for Aspha-Min and Sasobit are overlapping).
Table 6
Fatigue life (Nf) results for all FAM specimens (dry- and wet-condition).
Mixture
Dry
M.R.(N) = (R(N)wet/R(N)dry)
Control-HMA
Asphamin-WMA
Evotherm-WMA
Sasobit-WMA
Table 7
Moisture damage susceptibility ranking.
Wet
Mixture
Mean
Mean
43,581
141,169
130,835
149,685
6401
35,919
12,779
26,933
19,749
30,253
92,481
37,381
9933
17,117
38,466
14,434
2.4
Aspha-Min
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
Sasobit
Control
1.4
Evotherm
1.2
1.0
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
1.6
1.4
1.50
1.41
Nf (105 cycles)
Nf dry
1.31
1.2
Nf wet
29%
1.0
75%
79%
0.92
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.37
0.30
0.44
55%
0.20
0.0
Aspha-Min
Evotherm
Sasobit
Control
Control-HMA
Aspha-min-WMA
Evotherm-WMA
Sasobit-WMA
Value
Ranking
Value (%)
Ranking
1.38
1.84
1.31
1.42
2
4
1
3
45
21
71
25
2
4
1
3
fair comparison between the moisture susceptibility of WMA mixtures and their HMA counterparts might consider not only the
reduction in certain material properties or parameters, but also
the actual values of those properties or parameters.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that this study was performed using a specic set of materials (aggregate, asphalt binder,
and WMA additives), therefore restraining the possibility of providing generalized conclusions on the overall moisture sensitivity
of the evaluated WMA technologies.
Acknowledgments
This work was conducted while the second author held a graduate research assistant position at Universidad de Los Andes (Bogot-Colombia). The authors are thankful for the laboratory
assistance provided by David Zeig at Texas A&M University to complete the laboratory testing, and for the valuable inputs provided
by Dr. Bernardo Caicedo.
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