An In-Depth Evaluation of Shear Box Compactor for Hot Mix Asphalt
Abstract
Asphalt pavement is present in each roadway in every town or city today and it is paramount to properly design pavement to efficiently reduce its deterioration. To determine how pavement fails, pavement specimens prepared in the laboratory undergo performance tests which demonstrate the pavements strength and durability. Performance tests require little variability from compacted specimens, and it is critical to have a compaction method which is similar to field compaction and produces homogenous specimens. Currently, laboratory performance test specimens are obtained with the Superpave Gyratory Compactor (SGC). That device has few similarities to the rolling compactor, which performs the actual compaction of pavement in the field. To obtain precise and accurate performance test results, a compactor has to have an efficient compaction method and be able to produce repeatable test specimens. The PReSBOX Shear Box Compactor (SBC) was developed to simulate field compaction, since many test specimens can be extracted from the same sample, the specimens and as a result the performance test results can be more uniform. The focus of this study was to determine whether SBC can produce compacted samples that were equal or improved as compared to SGC. The distribution of air voids within compacted SBC samples and the comparison of performance tests which will be conducted using both the SBC and SGC were thoroughly studied herein. New specifications were developed for those to transportation agencies that would like to use SBC as an alternative to SGC.
Subject Area
Civil engineering
Recommended Citation
Aguilar, Isaac Jaime, "An In-Depth Evaluation of Shear Box Compactor for Hot Mix Asphalt" (2017). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI10283585.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI10283585