Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Int J Civ Eng DOI 10.1007/s40999-017-0188-5 RESEARCH PAPER Evaluation of Rutting Performance of Warm Mix Asphalt Ali Topal 1  · Julide Oner 2  · Burak Sengoz 1  · Peyman Aghazadeh Dokandari 3  · Derya Kaya 3   Received: 11 May 2016 / Revised: 23 August 2016 / Accepted: 28 December 2016 © Iran University of Science and Technology 2017 1 Introduction Asphalt stands as one of the oldest engineering materi- als which leads to investigate related technologies and seeks solutions in order to increase construction efciency, improve pavement performance and conserve resources through years [1, 2]. The utilization of warm mix asphalt (WMA) is not a new technology. The world focuses on the development of WMA technologies that may be traced back to two distinctive events [3]. The frst time, Csanyi produced asphalt with bitumen that was foamed by steam in 1956 at Iowa State University, USA [4]. Then, foaming technology started to spread out in diferent countries such as Australia, USA, Germany and France. Scientists have introduced the utilization of waxes as viscosity modifer for the last twenty years [5]. Initially, waxes were used for efcient workability of asphalt, not for lowering the tem- perature purpose. On the other hand, the world focuses on the development of WMA technologies due to two distinc- tive events such as the 1992 United Nations’ discussions on the environment and the 1996 Germany’s consideration to review asphalt emissions exposure limits. Reduction in mixing and placement temperatures became the obvious answer and triggered the development of WMA concepts and technologies [6]. In conjunction with developing modern WMA tech- nologies, laboratory studies have been conducted to show potential benefts of WMA and to evaluate the performance compared to traditional hot mix asphalt (HMA). First research reports are from Europe in mid-1990s; then, a lot of testing and feld trials have been conducted in USA with publically available reports [5]. The concept of ecologically conscious and energy sav- ing roads must be expanded to the performance of the asphalt mixtures [7]. The conventional HMA is produced Abstract In recent years, environmental protection is increasingly becoming a major issue in transportation including asphalt production. Despite the fact that hot mix asphalt (HMA) is widely used around the world, some recent studies suggest that using warm mix asphalt (WMA) technology reduces the production and placement tempera- ture of asphalt mixes. Currently, a common way of produc- ing WMA is through the utilization of additives. This paper frstly characterizes the efect of WMA additives (organic, chemical, water-containing additives) on base bitumen properties. Following the determination of optimum bitu- men content of the mixtures with diferent WMA additives through Marshall test, Hamburg wheel-tracking device is used to measure the permanent deformation characteris- tics of WMA mixtures. Based on the fndings of this study, the utilization of WMA additives helps in the reduction in viscosity values which in return decreases mixing and compaction temperature leading to the reduction in energy costs as well as emissions. Besides, it can be concluded that all WMA mixtures performed better than HMA mixtures in the matter of rut depth. Keywords Warm mix asphalt · Organic additive · Chemical additive · Water-containing additives · Hamburg wheel-tracking device * Burak Sengoz burak.sengoz@deu.edu.tr 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Dokuz Eylul University, 35160 Izmir, Turkey 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Usak University, Usak, Turkey 3 Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey