Columbus Mississippi Field Aging and Laboratory Conditioning Study: Plant Mixed and Laboratory Compacted Asphalt Mixtures

2018Final Report, March 2013 to June 2018Work was performed under Mississippi State University projects titled: Asphalt Mixture Field Aging Study Preliminary Testing (Project No. 106526 101000), Field Aging Effects on Asphalt Mixed at Different Temperatures and Hauled Different Distances (State Study 266), and Laboratory Conditioning and Field Aging of Asphalt Mixtures (State Study 270). All work performed for this report was under principal investigator Isaac L. Howard. Two additional reports were performed as part of Project 106526 101000, State Study 266, and State Study 270, which were designated FHWA/MS-DOT-RD-18-266/270-Volume 1 and FHWA/MS-DOT-RD-18-266/270-Volume 2. Both additional volumes deal with field aging of asphalt mixtures and all three reports complement each other.PDFTech ReportFHWA/MS-DOT-RD-18-266/270-Volume 3Warm mix paving mixturesAging (Materials)Fracture testsAsphalt pavementsAsphalt testsWMACantabroSasobitEvothermFoamFracture EnergyMississippiUnited StatesMississippi State University. Dept. of Civil and Environmental EngineeringHoward, Isaac L.Bazuhair, Rabeea W.Pittman, Carl V.Smith, Braden T.Mississippi State University. Dept. of Civil and Environmental EngineeringMississippi. Dept. of Transportation. Research DivisionUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionThe main objective of this report was to characterize asphalt containing warm mix technologies at various levels of field aging and laboratory conditioning in terms of mixture and binder properties encompassing the temperature range expected in Mississippi. The primary data sets collected for this overall body of work are from full-scale constructed test sections where cores were collected over time (Volume 2), and from plant mixed asphalt containing warm mix technology that was field aged for four years or laboratory conditioned (Volume 3). Approximately 5,100 mixture specimens were tested as part of this three volume set of reports. When rounded to the nearest hundred mixture specimens, 300 were tested for Volume 1, 3,400 were tested for Volume 2, and 1,400 were tested for Volume 3. Binder testing was also performed in support of mixture testing. A primary recommendation of this work is to use Cantabro Mass Loss (CML) for assessment of environmental effects, and in particular combined effects of oxidation, moisture, and freeze-thaw (FT). The default recommendation is to compact an asphalt specimen, then expose this specimen to 5 days of 85 degree Celsius air, followed by 14 days submerged in 64 degree Celsius water, and 1 FT cycle before testing for CML. Based on findings from this collective body of work (Volumes 1 to 3), this appears to simulate 4.0 to 5.5 years of aging in the Mississippi climate. It is also recommended that all three warm mix technologies evaluated in this paper be allowed for consideration to optimize a given project. This recommendation was based on none of the technologies holistically behaving better or worse than the others, while also not being dramatically different than hot mixed asphalt that was also evaluated in this report.78