Determination of rutting distresses on hot mix asphalts by advanced techniques

Abstract

The sustainable use of non-renewable natural resources, such as asphalt binder, can be achieved by adequate planning. The proper assessment of asphalt binders is a prerequisite to the appropriate designing of road constructions that can eventually result in pavements in which the development of pavement distresses can be mitigated. Rutting is the most common distress occurring at high temperatures, which is frequently experienced by such countries as Indonesia; thus, the use of adequate asphalt binder in hot mix asphalt pavements results in long-lasting road constructions. By means of advanced techniques, e.g., multiple stress creep recovery test, conducted on a dynamic shear rheometer, it is possible to determine the rutting potential of asphalt binders. This technique, however, still seems to be imprecise at currently determined shear stress values. This paper aims to investigate on the example of ten different asphalt binders, if creep and recovery measured at higher shear stresses result in better correlation with rutting potential of hot mix asphalts than that at the standardized stress levels. Concurrently, other conventional asphalt binder properties (e.g., penetration, softening point, elastic recovery) are determined and compared with rutting.