Available online at www.CivileJournal.org
Civil Engineering Journal
(E-ISSN: 2476-3055; ISSN: 2676-6957)
Vol. 7, No. 09, September, 2021
1529
Performance Evaluation of Fatigue and Fracture Resistance of
WMA Containing High Percentages of RAP
Saad Tayyab
1*
, Arshad Hussain
1
, Fazal Haq
2
, Afaq Khattak
3
1
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (SCEE), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) Islamabad, Pakistan.
2
National Institute of Transportation (NIT), Military College of Engineering NUST Risalpur, Pakistan.
3
Department of Civil Engineering, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), Pakistan.
Received 25 May 2021; Revised 27 July 2021; Accepted 09 August 2021; Published 01 September 2021
Abstract
Sustainability and durability are the key requirements of pavement structure. Sustainability of asphalt pavement structure
involves utilization of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) technologies with the addition of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement
(RAP), where durability of asphalt involves performance parameters like fatigue and fracture resistance properties etc.
Utilizing the RAP content in asphalt mix increases the mixing and compaction temperature which may degrade the
performance of asphalt. Hence, numerous studies have recommended different WMA technologies to decrease mixing
and compaction temperature of asphalt mix containing RAP. The present research work evaluates the fatigue and fracture
performance of WMA and Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) with varying percentages of RAP and Sasobit. Different mixes of
WMA and HMA were designed with varying percentages of RAP (0, 20, 40 and 60%) through Marshall Mix design.
Sasobit (organic/wax-based additive) was used as WMA technology to prepare WMA at varying percentages (0, 2, 4 and
6%). The fatigue behavior of asphalt was evaluated using four-point bending test, where fracture resistance of asphalt
was determined using Semi Circular Bending (SCB) test in the laboratory. Fatigue and fracture resistance of WMA were
improved with the increase in percentages of Sasobit and RAP content, while the addition of RAP in HMA showed a
decreasing trend of fatigue and fracture resistance due to the stiffer nature of RAP. Furthermore, WMA was identified as
economical for construction besides other benefits like improved properties and environment friendly asphalt mix.
Keywords: Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA); Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA); Fracture Resistance; Fatigue Cracking; Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement
(RAP); Sasobit.
1. Introduction
Production asphalt mixes with WMA technologies and RAP materials are emerging technologies and gaining
popularity to deal with the concern related to energy consumption and global warming throughout the world. WMA
technologies permit 10-30
o
C lower mixing and compacting temperatures than conventional HMA. The conventional
HMA are compacted at 145-150
o
C and mixed at 150-155
o
C [1]. The reduction in mixing and compacting temperature
during mix production will in turn lead to less fuel costs in production and laying of asphalt mix. In addition to cost
saving, less fuel consumption leads to lower greenhouse gases and fumes emission during mix preparation by asphalt
plant and makes it more eco-friendly [2]. World Bank estimates the sustainability of WMA and emphasized that each
* Corresponding author: saadtayyab@nit.nust.edu.pk
http://dx.doi.org/10.28991/cej-2021-03091741
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee C.E.J, Tehran, Iran. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms
and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).