Accelerated Testing of Warm Asphalt Mixtures for Safe and Reliable Freight Transportation.

摘要

Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is moving rapidly into the mainstream of the asphalt pavement construction in the United States due to the reduced fuel consumption, less carbon dioxide emission, longer paving season, longer hauling distance, reduced oxidation of asphalt, early opening to traffic and a better working environment in the field. To meet the growing demand from the public agencies and recently, National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) proposed a national WMA certification program (Kvasnak et al. 2010). It requires a full-scale test in their test track in Auburn, Alabama, where their full-scale test results may not be relevant to the performance of WMA pavements in the mid-west Region 7 because the climate and soil condition at NCAT test track are different. In previous studies at the University of Iowa, various WMA mixtures were tested in the laboratory for stiffness, rutting, and moisture resistance. To validate these laboratory results and to predict the field performance, it is proposed to test select WMA mixtures using the accelerated testing equipment in both laboratory and at an accelerated pavement testing (APT) facility. The results from the accelerated tests will help contractors build safe and reliable WMA pavements for heavier truck traffic with a high tire pressure.