Field and Laboratory Evaluation of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) -Phase 1

Details

• Creators:
  Tarefder, Rafiqul A. ; Pan, Jielin
• Corporate Creators:
  University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Department of Civil Engineering
• Corporate Contributors:
  New Mexico. Department of Transportation. Research Bureau ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Evotherm Field Tests Foamed Asphalt Laboratory Tests Pavement Performance Warm Mix Paving Mixtures
• Publication/ Report Number:
  NM13MSC-04
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; New Mexico
• Edition:
  April 01, 2013 to August 30, 2014
• Corporate Publisher:
  New Mexico. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  This report summarizes the current state of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) technologies in the U.S. and in New Mexico. It is found that a number of WMA technologies, as many as 35, are currently available under three categories of WMA: foaming, organic additive, and chemical additive. However, it is not clear though whether and what specific WMA technology works better than another. Being a new technology in the U.S., WMA lacks information on long-term field performances. Written survey revealed that New Mexico uses only two WMA technologies: Evotherm and foaming. Field visual inspections of six WMA projects: three evotherm and three foaming concluded that overall WMA pavements are performing well in New Mexico. However, six projects evaluated were only 1-3 years old, and in many cases, WMA was covered by an open graded friction course (OGFC) layer. Therefore, field inspection results should be used carefully. All most all the projects surveyed were rehabilitation projects (mill and fill) and suffer from transverse and reflective cracking on the shoulder and edge of pavements. Construction data revealed that most foaming projects use mixing temperature around 300 °F, which is slightly higher than the traditional WMA mixing temperature of 275 °F or below. Analysis of pavement distress data, gathered from pavement management system (PMS) database, shows that hot mix asphalt (HMA) performs slightly better than foamed WMA, which performs slightly better than evotherm WMA in New Mexico. This study also performs a critical review of the laboratory and field test methods, devices, procedures and pavement performances. It is shown that HMA mix design procedure and performance testing devices are applicable to WMA with a very slight difference. In general, air voids, rutting resistance, and dynamic modulus of WMA mixture are slightly lower than control HMA. Fatigue life and low temperature cracking resistance of WMA are comparable to HMA. WMA pavements are more likely to be susceptible to moisture-related damages during their early life as compared to HMA pavements. However, the difference between HMA and WMA moisture damage is less after WMA mixtures have experienced aging. Finally, this study makes recommendations for Phase 2 study to evaluate volumetric properties, rutting, modulus, fatigue cracking, low temperature cracking, and moisture susceptibility, and workability and compactability of evotherm and foaming WMA technologies in New Mexico. Recommendations are also made to evaluate other concerns that were raised during this study. Specifically, concerns and issues related to recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) incorporation, oxidative aging of WMA, and performance of WMA OGFC should be addressed in Phase 2 through field and laboratory testing.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  456-385
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6aba5fcb9dc581156ebe623ddb0a94c616ce7b7d2efd7b21bdde2e9177e1c9ae281a26c06b833438191099dacd491f8dbdab2dd6750cce4ec9d0c77c89e8383d
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/87297/dot_87297_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.35 MB ]