Influence of Polymer Thermoplastic Elastomer on‏ ‏the Moisture ‎Sensitivity‏ ‏of Stone Matrix Asphalt Mixtures

Document Type : Scientific - Research

Authors

Abstract

Moisture is always considered as one of the factors causing stripping of asphalt. One of most ‎common issues in asphalt mixtures is eradication or reduction of the effects of moisture on ‎bituminous hot mix asphalt and the best method to achieve this is to use additives and to change ‎the structure of asphalt aggregating. Change in the type of aggregate is due to the changing in the ‎rate of optimized asphalt, and actually the increasing in the rate of optimized asphalt could ‎significantly affect the reduction of water in filtration in concrete aggregate and finally reduces ‎the moisture sensitivity. The grading used in this study is related to the gap and stone matrix ‎asphalt. In the mixtures, due to using high amount bituminous materials, the phenomenon of ‎drain down happens, it might decrease the thickness of bituminous around  aggregate and causes ‎water infiltration and reduces inter adhesiveness of bitumen and aggregate. Therefore, in order to ‎fix the stone matrix asphalt mixtures, fiber or modifying polymer are used. Thermoplastic ‎elastomers polymers are those that simultaneously have the properties of elastomer and plastomer ‎and in this research the moisture sensitivity of improved stone matrix asphalt mixtures with two ‎kinds of these polymers called Lucobit and WKR-‎‏2‏‎ with deferent percentages have been studied ‎and  compared to ‎‏5%‏‎ SBS in resilient modulus experiment, indirect tensile‏ ‏strength, Marshall ‎stability. The result showed that by increasing these polymers percentages, the increase in resilient ‎modulus and its ratio and the amount of ITS and TSR as well as Marshall stability and its ratio of ‎wetness to dryness will be increased and they also showed better results in high percentages in ‎comparison to ‎‏5%‏‎ SBS.‎

Keywords