Warm mix asphalt (WMA) for rapid construction in airfield pavement

Rahman, Taqia; Dawson, Andrew; Thom, Nicholas

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Warm-mix asphalt (WMA) is commonly mixed and compacted 15°C to 30°C below that of conventional hot mix asphalt (HMA). The lower production temperature of WMA is expected to give an advantage of a lower cooling time of newly laid asphalt overlay before it can be opened to traffic during the nighttime airfield pavement construction. The reduced cooling time of WMA would allow shorter airport closure time window and/or extend the time for the contractor for paving, and thus shorten the overall construction period due to more volume done each night. This is a beneficial practical advantage to hectic airports where the typical off-peak period is as short as 6–8 h. In this research, two different WMA technologies, Sasobit® and Rediset® (organic and chemical) were investigated through laboratory tests to see if there were notable differences in WMA rutting performance that could have considerable practical effects on the permissible temperature at the opening to traffic as compared to the HMA. Furthermore, a validated finite element (FE) solution for one-dimensional transient heat-transfer model is used to simulate the effect of the use of warm mix on shortening the cooling time and the overall project time. The laboratory test shows that the WMA with Sasobit has a significantly better rutting performance at the elevated temperature, enabling the WMA to be opened to traffic at a higher temperature, compared to HMA. The cooling analysis showed that, in comparison to HMA, the use of WMA could shorten the closure time of airport during the night time construction by 8–67 min (5–73% reductions), depending on the asphalt overlay thickness, specified traffic opening temperature and WMA production temperature. The use of WMA could also reduce the overall construction period by 2–16 nights for a single lift overlay, for the cases studied – which would represent a shortening of the overlay period by 4–24%.

Citation

Rahman, T., Dawson, A., & Thom, N. (2020). Warm mix asphalt (WMA) for rapid construction in airfield pavement. Construction and Building Materials, 246, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118411

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 25, 2020
• Publication Date: Jun 20, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 13, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 26, 2021
• Journal: Construction and Building Materials
• Print ISSN: 0950-0618
• Electronic ISSN: 1879-0526
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 246
• Article Number: 118411
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118411
• Keywords: Warm mix asphalt (WMA); Rapid construction; Rehabilitation; Airport pavements; Sasobit; General Materials Science; Civil and Structural Engineering; Building and Construction
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3958609
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061820304165
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Warm mix asphalt (WMA) for rapid construction in airfield pavement; Journal Title: Construction and Building Materials; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118411; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.