Highly Modified Asphalt Florida Department of Transportation [case study]
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2021-11-01
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Abstract:This is one of five case studies highlighting FHWA’s Every Day Counts initiative known as Targeted Overlay Pavement Solutions (TOPS). The purpose of TOPS is to integrate innovative overlay procedures into practices to improve performance, lessen traffic impacts, and reduce the cost of pavement ownership. Highly modified asphalt (HiMA) mixtures contain asphalt binder that is typically modified with 7 to 8 percent polymer, most commonly styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS). This amount of polymer is more than twice what is used in conventional polymer modified binders—approximately 3 percent by weight of the binder. According to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) research (Habbouche et al. 2019)1 , the binder-polymer structure of conventional modified binders consists of asphalt binder with a dispersed swollen polymer phase that improves binder properties. By increasing the polymer content, the researchers found that the structure changes to a swollen polymer with a dispersed asphalt phase. This makes the resulting binder behave more like rubber and enhances cracking resistance and rutting performance. FDOT initially adopted the use of HiMA binder as a mechanism to address severe rutting observed in high-stress locations subject to heavy axle loads and slow-moving traffic, such as truck weigh stations, agricultural inspection stations, and high-volume intersections and interchanges. FDOT’s idea of using a high-polymer content binder to improve rutting resistance was prompted by results obtained from experimental test sections constructed at the National Center for Asphalt Technology Test Track in Auburn, Alabama.
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