Performance Characteristics Comparisons of Various Asphalt Mixture Technologies

A laboratory investigation was carried out to study the effects of various compaction technologies on moisture susceptibility, rutting resistance, and fatigue characteristics of various asphalt mixtures. The methodologies used in this study included three technologies such as common hot mix asphalt (HMA), warm mix (WMA), and half-warm mix asphalt (HWMA) technologies. In addition, in terms of WMA and HWMA mixtures, a foaming technology was used to produce the samples. The experimental design for WMA and HWMA included one aggregate moisture contents (similar to 0.5 % by weight of the dry mass of the aggregate), three lime contents (0 %, 1 % and 2 % lime by weight of dry aggregate), and 2 % foaming water content. For HMA, 1 % lime content and completely dried aggregate were used. Three aggregate sources (designated as A, B, and C) and one PG 64-22 binder were used in this study. A total of 9 Superpave mix designs and 21 mixtures were completed. A total of 84 indirect tensile strength (ITS) samples, 126 asphalt pavement analyzer (APA) samples, and 30 fatigue beams were tested in this research. The major properties such as gyration number, ITS, tensile strength ratio (TSR), rut depth, deformation, toughness, as well as fatigue life were measured and computed for all mixtures. The test results indicated that various compaction technologies would slightly affect the Superpave mix design and obviously have an influence on gyration number, ITS values, rut depth, flow, toughness, and fatigue life of various mixtures regardless of aggregate source and lime content. In addition, the aggregate source significantly affected the ITS and rutting resistance in this study.