Mechanical Performance of Warm-Mixed Porous Asphalt Mixture with Steel Slag and Crumb-Rubber⁻SBS Modified Bitumen for Seasonal Frozen Regions

Materials (Basel). 2019 Mar 14;12(6):857. doi: 10.3390/ma12060857.

Abstract

In this paper, the performance of a warm-mixed porous asphalt mixture (PAM) with steel slag as aggregate and crumb-rubber⁻SBS (styrene-butadiene-styrene) modified bitumen as a binder was studied. Two kinds of warming additives were used, namely ethylene bis stearic acid amide (EBS) and stearic acid amide (SA). The mixtures were investigated for their permeability, Marshall stability, low-temperature crack resistance, and underwent a rutting test, water sensitivity evaluation and Cantabro particle loss test. Then, the viscoelastic and dynamic characteristics of the mixtures were also analyzed. The results showed that the addition of the warming additives allowed the decrease of the manufacturing temperature by 10 °C. Thus, the addition of warming additives significantly improves the low-temperature crack resistance and slightly reduces the water sensitivity, weakly increases the permeability, and has little effect on the resilient modulus. Since the addition of SA significantly improves the low-temperature crack resistance and rutting resistance of the PAM, SA is therefore recommended for pavement engineering in seasonal frozen regions.

Keywords: crumb-rubber–SBS modified bitumen; mechanical performance; porous asphalt mixture; steel slag; warm mix asphalt.