Influence of the Long-Term Oven Aging on the Performance of the Reinforced Asphalt Mixtures

Abstract

The long-term aging of the asphalt mixtures has become a major concern because it decreases the lifespan of the asphalt layer. In this study, the asphalt mixtures incorporating steel slag aggregates were reinforced with synthetic fibers as a novel contribution in terms of decreasing the effect of aging on the performance of the asphalt mixtures. However, different mixtures—namely, Mix0, Mix1, and Mix2—were subjected to long-term oven aging to study the effect of the aging on the performance of the asphalt mixes. Mix0 consisted of coarse and fine granite aggregates, while Mix1 was composed of coarse steel slag aggregate and fine granite aggregate. Mix2 represents the reinforced asphalt mixtures incorporating coarse steel slag aggregate and reinforced with the synthetic fibers of polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic, and polyester at the proportion of 0.3% by weight of the aggregates. The conducted performance tests were resilient modulus, rutting depth, and cracking resistance. The outputs of the performance tests for the unaged asphalt mixes displayed that the mixtures incorporating coarse steel slag aggregate exhibited better performance than the mixtures containing granite aggregate. Meanwhile, the reinforced asphalt mixtures have shown a lower resilient modulus and a higher permanent deformation than the unreinforced asphalt mixes due to the elastic behavior. Otherwise, the reinforced asphalt mixtures have shown superior resistance to cracking in comparison to the unreinforced mixtures. On the other hand, the performance of the aged asphalt mixtures demonstrated that the mixtures containing granite aggregates exhibited a lower susceptibility to aging than the mixtures incorporating steel slag aggregate. Meanwhile, the performance of the aged reinforced asphalt mixtures showed that introducing synthetic fibers has decreased the effect of the long-term oven aging.

Applications of Synthetic, Natural, and Waste Fibers in Asphalt Mixtures: A Citation-Based Review

“…The authors concluded that the addition of 8 mm long polyester fibers at a content of 0.25% by mix weight significantly improved the fracture energy of asphalt mixes. Alnadish et al [ 66 , 67 , 68 ] noticed that reinforcing an asphalt mix incorporated with coarse steel slag aggregates with 0.3% polyester fibers enhanced moisture resistance, rutting resistance, cracking resistance, and aging resistance. Hong et al [ 69 ] found that introducing 0.3% polyester fiber to an asphalt mix composed of 0.4% coal gangue powder notably boosted the resistance of the asphalt mix to cracking at low temperatures.…”

“…Furthermore, voids filled with asphalt (VFA) refer to the voids filled with a binder in the compacted sample. VFA depends on VMA and AV, and as the percentage of VMA increases and the percentage of AV decreases, the percentage of VFA increases [ 67 , 86 , 124 , 146 ].…”

Laboratory Investigation of the Water Damage Resistance of Tuff Asphalt Mixture Modified with Additives

“…(2) Aging test 1) After conducting the immersion Marshall test and freeze-thaw splitting test, the aging effect of the asphalt mixture was considered to evaluate the durability of the mixture for water damage resistance. In this study, a long-term aging test was conducted in two steps [27]. 2) After tuff mixtures with different additive schemes were mixed, the mixtures were introduced into the tray and tiled.…”

A bibliometric analysis and review on the performance of polymer-modified bitumen

“…However, bitumen is widely used in the applications of pavement due to its adhesion property. In other words, bitumen works as an adhesive material that binds coarse aggregates, fine aggregates, and filler to form the layer of asphalt on the roads (Pyshyev et al, 2016;Oliviero Rossi et al, 2017;Nizamuddin et al, 2021;Alnadish et al, 2020b). On the other hand, bitumen is a viscoelastic material that behaves as an elastic material at high temperature and viscous at low temperature.…”