Effects of Aggregate Degradation on Air Voids of Structural Asphalt Mixture in Florida

Author(s):  
Gale C. Page ◽  
James A. Musselman ◽  
David C. Romano

In an effort to further improve the rut resistance of asphalt pavements in Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation implemented specifications requiring that the production of asphalt mixes be stopped when the air-void content falls below a critical level. To address the problem of low air voids and rutting in north Florida, a proposal was made to reduce the maximum amount of material allowed to pass the 75-μm sieve (P-75μm) at design for asphalt mixtures containing north Florida limestone aggregates. A field study was then undertaken to determine whether this proposal would adequately resolve the problem of low air voids during production due to high P-75μm. The purpose of the study was to determine the amount of degradation to a typical north Florida limestone material and the subsequent effects that degradation has on air voids. The results indicate that although the north Florida limestone aggregates used in this study did degrade significantly, the asphalt contractor was, in general, able to control the amount of P-75μm material in the mix by wasting the baghouse fines. During production, the air voids were low on a number of samples. The source of these low air voids appears to be related to a combination of a high asphalt content in the mix as well as a high P-75μm content. The findings do not support the proposal to reduce the P-75μm content at design at this time. An unexpected finding of this study was that the bulk specific gravities of the commercial aggregate products were less than expected. The impact of this finding is that the voids in the mineral aggregate (VMA) of the mix at design would not meet minimum specification requirements. Although this could make it difficult for an asphalt mixture to have adequate air voids during production, the primary impact of a low VMA is that the pavement would have poor durability and would potentially become brittle and crack prematurely.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4238
Author(s):  
Piotr Pokorski ◽  
Piotr Radziszewski ◽  
Michał Sarnowski

The paper presents the issue of resistance to permanent deformations of bridge pavements placed upon concrete bridge decks. In Europe, bridge asphalt pavement usually consists of a wearing course and a protective layer, which are placed over the insulation (waterproofing). Protective layers of bridge pavement are commonly constructed using low air void content asphalt mixes as this provides the suitable tightness of such layers. Due to increased binder content, asphalt mixes for bridge pavement may have reduced resistance to permanent deformations. The article presents test results of resistance to permanent deformations of asphalt mixes for the protective layers. In order to determine the composition of mixtures with low air void content and resistance to permanent deformation, an experimental design was applied using a new concept of asphalt mix composition. Twenty-seven different asphalt mixture compositions were analyzed. The mixtures varied in terms of binder content, sand content and grit ratio. Resistance to permanent deformation was tested using the laboratory uniaxial cyclic compression method (dynamic load creep). On the basis of experimental results and statistical analysis, the functions of asphalt mixture permanent deformation resistance were established. This enabled a determination of suitable mixture compositions for protective layers for concrete bridge decks.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Buğra İbiş ◽  
Burak Şengöz ◽  
Ali Topal ◽  
Derya Kaya Özdemir

Porous asphalt pavement is defined as an asphalt concrete that is designed with open gradation aggregate which helps in removing the water with an air void content of about 20% by creating drainage channels. Open gradation consists of large amounts of coarse aggregates and small amounts of fine aggregates. The water is drained due to this hollow structure, this air void content in the porous asphalt mixture which inevitably decreases with time is the main parameter affecting the service life as well as the structural and functional performance. Moreover, the reduction in air void content is one of the main reasons for the loss of permeability in porous asphalt pavements and this lead to the increase in pavement density under heavy traffic conditions. Each country has its own technical asphalt specification involving the required compaction energy and temperature. This study involves the effect of compaction temperatures and numbers on the air void in porous asphalt pavements prepared with 50/70 penetration grade bitumen. As a result of experimental studies, it has been observed that the reduced compaction temperature and the number of compaction (energy) increase the air void level in porous asphalt pavements.


Author(s):  
Bouzid Choubane ◽  
Gale C. Page ◽  
James A. Musselman

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) initiated monitoring of its first Superpave section on I-75 in Columbia County for stripping potential using AASHTO T 283, which specifies that all conditioned test samples be saturated to between 55 and 80 percent based on 7 ± 1 percent air voids. A fairly large saturation range is allowed because it was thought that mixtures may have different percentages of permeable air voids. However, the potential interaction between air void content and the level of saturation has not been fully investigated. It is also not clear whether test results from samples saturated to 55 percent are comparable with those of the same mixture saturated to 80 percent for a similar air void content. Therefore, although FDOT adopted AASHTO T 283, it also initiated a parallel study on the effects of different degrees of saturation on moisture damage. Findings are reported of both the ongoing monitoring of the I-75 project for potential stripping and the investigation of the effects of different levels of saturation on moisture susceptibility test results as determined using AASHTO T 283.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2613
Author(s):  
Nectaria Diamanti ◽  
A. Peter Annan ◽  
Steven R. Jackson ◽  
Dylan Klazinga

Density is one of the most important parameters in the construction of asphalt mixtures and pavement engineering. When a mixture is properly designed and compacted, it will contain enough air voids to prevent plastic deformation but will have low enough air void content to prevent water ingress and moisture damage. By mapping asphalt pavement density, areas with air void content outside of the acceptable range can be identified to predict its future life and performance. We describe a new instrument, the pavement density profiler (PDP) that has evolved from many years of making measurements of asphalt pavement properties. This instrument measures the electromagnetic (EM) wave impedance to infer the asphalt pavement density (or air void content) locally and over profiles.


2013 ◽  
Vol 723 ◽  
pp. 303-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Garcia ◽  
Jose Norambuena-Contreras ◽  
Manfred N. Partl

Induction heating consists in adding electrically conductive fibers to the asphalt mixture and heating them with an induction heating device. But still, the factors that affect the increase of temperature are not well-known. With this purpose, 25 different mixtures, with the same aggregates distribution and amount of bitumen, but with 2 different lengths, 4 different quantities, and 4 different diameters of steel wool fibers have been considered. The influence of fibers on the air void content, electrical and thermal conductivity and on the induction heating of dense asphalt concrete has been studied. It was found that steel wool fibers increase slightly the electrical and thermal conductivities of dense asphalt concrete. Finally, it has been observed that the temperature reached due to the induction heating, increases with the number of fibers in the mixture and with their diameter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Chai ◽  
Yong-Chun Cheng ◽  
Yuwei Zhang ◽  
Yu Chen ◽  
Bing Zhu

This paper focuses on the freeze-thaw cycles (F-T cycles) resistance of porous asphalt mixture (PAM) with different air voids in order to explore the gradation of the PAM suitable for seasonal freezing regions. Three sets of PAMs with 18%, 21%, and 25% air voids were designed. After 0–20 F-T cycles, the effects of F-T cycles on the performance degradation of three groups of PAMs were studied by performing a low-temperature splitting test with acoustic emission technology, a normal temperature splitting test, a compression test, a Cantabro particle loss test, and a dynamic creep test. The results show that the damage process of PAM caused by multiple F-T cycles could be more clearly defined by acoustic emission parameters. In addition, the larger the air void, the smaller its indirect tensile strength and compression strength, and the worse its particle loss resistance and high-temperature stability, which made the adverse effect of F-T cycles more significant. Therefore, the air void of PAM used in seasonal freezing regions is suggested to be less than 21%.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2507 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong-Sub Lee ◽  
Nelson Gibson ◽  
Y. Richard Kim

Effects of design air void contents, design voids in mineral aggregate (VMA), and in-place air voids on the fatigue performance of asphalt mixtures were investigated with mechanistic analyses based on the viscoelastic continuum damage (VECD) analyses and the mechanistic–empirical pavement analysis using the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design program. The VECD analyses included the simplified viscoelastic continuum damage model at the material level and two structural models: ( a) layered viscoelastic analysis and ( b) layered viscoelastic pavement analysis for critical distresses. The mix design of a 2013 accelerated loading facility test lane was selected to develop the volumetric mix designs with the design air voids of 3%, 4%, and 5%, design VMAs of 13%, 14%, and 15%, and in-place air void contents of 5%, 7%, and 9% with the Bailey method. Dynamic modulus and direct tension cyclic fatigue tests were performed in accordance with the AASHTO TP 107 procedure. The test results showed that the linear viscoelastic property was affected by the design VMA, design air void content, and in-place air void content in order of sensitivity. Also, the damage states at failure determined from the damage characteristic curves and the mechanistic fatigue predictions had consistent trends as observed for the design VMA, in-place air void, and design air void content in rank of sensitivity. Finally, the design VMA, in-place air void, and design air void parameters were found to be sensitive in the mechanistic analyses, whereas the parameter that was most sensitive in the pavement mechanistic–empirical analysis was the in-place air void content.


2013 ◽  
Vol 771 ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Jin Xi Zhang ◽  
Chao Wang ◽  
Ming Yang Guo ◽  
Mao Cheng Ma

This paper studies the effect of water-cement ratio [w/ on the air-void parameters of cement concrete, which has a significant influence on the durability of concrete. Based on the experimental investigation, it is found that the impact on the air content of hardened concrete due to different water-cement ratio is not great. Test results also indicate that with the increase of water-cement ratio, the spacing factors also experienced a marked rise, and the mean diameters as well as the specific areas of air voids evidently increased or declined, respectively, which may lead to an adverse effect on the frost resistance of concrete.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1209 (1) ◽  
pp. 012078
Author(s):  
J Bokomlasko ◽  
J Mandula

Abstract Asphalt mixture is a building material with many advantages. Therefore, it is most used in road construction. If the asphalt mixture is laid with the prescribed technology, it can withstand load effects to long-term. It is necessary to take samples that will be subjected to laboratory measurements. There are several laboratory test, for example measurement thickness of the asphalt mixture layers, the aggregate fraction, quantity of binder in the mixture, determination of air void in asphalt mixture layers. Samples taken directly from the construction site are subjected to laboratory tests. This article focuses on one of the laboratory tests and it is determination of air void in asphalt mixture layers. The determination of air void in asphalt mixture layers is test in detail, because this effect has influence on the deformation properties of asphalt mixture layers. Therefore, it was necessary to model of air void in asphalt mixture layers with different degrees air void. On this purpose was use program Abaqus. The results were plotted. This graphs showed that increasing the air void in asphalt mixture layers has effect on the expansion of deformations. This can lead to faster pavement degradation.


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