Effects of Asphalt Composition and Compaction on the Performance of Asphalt Pavement Mixtures. Final Report

摘要

The report is presented in two parts. The first part presents the work done to characterize the fabric of the asphalt sand mix surface and to reproduce the fabric in the laboratory. In addition, it examines the field compaction time requirements for these materials. The second part evaluates the use of blended asphalts, as well as the use of high pressure-gel permeation chromatography to characterize the chemical composition of asphalts. Based upon the comparison of the pore-size distribution of the fabric of both laboratory and field compacted mixtures, the gyratory and kneading compactors created satisfactorily equivalent laboratory fabrics to those of field cores. No major differences in behavior were found for the artificially blended asphalts, in general, although rich asphaltene asphalts show a higher hardening rate at high temperatures. Blended ROSE asphalts do not create differences in performance than straight-run produced asphalts. The asphalt chemical composition does appear associated with individual performance characteristics.