Effect of Moisture Content in the Aggregate to the Binder-Aggregate Adhesive Properties of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA)

Abstract

Increasing demand towards environmental awareness and sustainable development in all sector has lead the construction industry to develop technologies that have less negative impact to the environment Accordingly Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is one technology that found to have potential in minimizing the bad environmental impact in road construction activities It’s low mixing and compacting temperature has open a great opportunities toward more sustainable development However low mixing temperatures features of WMA technologies may lead to incomplete drying process of aggregate that impact on binder-aggregate adhesion property due to moisture-induce damage In addition during its service life asphalt viscoelastic properties will gradually change and become more brittle which will reduce its adhesion properties with aggregate Thus the objective of this study will focus on investigating the effect of aggregate moisture and asphalt binder field aging on the binder-aggregate interfacial characteristic of WMA by evaluating its surface free energy and adhesive bond strength Moisture content inside aggregate found to have significant impact on reducing the work of adhesion by only 10% of moisture content the work of adhesion may decrease up to 50% of its original value at dry condition Asphalt binder field aging also play a significant role in asphalt-aggregate bond energy with average reduction of 3% in a month compare to unaged materials

Date of Award	2014 Aug 26
Original language	English
Supervisor	Shih-Hsien Yang (Supervisor)