Date of Award

2018-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor(s)

Soheil Nazarian

Abstract

With the popularity of the Balanced Mix Design (BMD) concept, the need for performance tests that can reliably evaluate the cracking and rutting potentials of asphalt concrete (AC) mixes has become more critical. A great deal of effort has been focused on incorporating test methods that can potentially improve the current AC mix-design processes and consequently screen underperforming AC mixes. However, the influence of mix design parameters on the performanceof BMD mixes that provide pavement engineers and designers with thorough guidelines and a reliable and consistent test protocol has not been extensively documented.

This Thesis presents an experimental evaluation of the influences of different mix design parameters on the mechanical performance of AC mixes as measured with the Overlay Tester (OT), Hamburg wheel-tracking (HWT) device, and indirect tension (IDT) tests. Superpave mixes with 12.5 mm nominal maximum aggregate size (NMAS) and asphalt binder replacement (ABR) ranging from 0% to over 50% were designed and evaluated with two different aggregate types, three neat asphalt binders with specified PG 64-22, PG 70-22 and PG 76-22, five different sources of asphalt binders with PG 64-22 and PG 70-22, three different reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) contents, and two sources of RAP. A performance diagram was used to interpret collectively the cracking potential, rutting potential, and tensile strength of the mixes. The coefficients of variation from the investigated parameters ranged from 0% to 20%. Given the promising results from this study, the performance test methods, analysis methodology and documented influence of mix

design parameters could be potentially implemented to enhance current mix design process and design balanced AC mixes.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

89 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Luiza Helena Barros

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