Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Reduction of moisture susceptibility of cold asphalt mixture with

Portland cement and bentonite nanoclay additives
Qiao Dong a, *, Jiawei Yuan b, Xueqin Chen c, **, Xiang Ma d
a
Department of Highway and Railway Engineering, School of Transportation, Southeast University, 2# Sipailou, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210096, China
b
Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210094, China
c
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
d
School of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, 159# Longpan, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210037, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This laboratory study investigated the effect of reducing moisture susceptibility of cutback asphalt
Received 28 November 2017 mixture by adding Portland cement and bentonite, a nanoclay capable of absorbing water and sealing
Received in revised form cracks through swelling. The initial strength, moisture susceptibility involving both soaking and freeze-
15 December 2017
thaw cycling, and cracking resistance at low temperature, were investigated. Test results showed that
Accepted 19 December 2017
Available online 20 December 2017
adding cement and nanoclay significantly improved the initial strength and cracking resistance, and
reduced moisture susceptibility. The 20% cement content group generally had the best overall perfor-
mance. The Marshall stability and indirect tensile strength were improved even after 24 h soaking or
Keywords:
Cutback asphalt
freeze-thaw cycling for the 20% cement content group, indicating the potential hydration of cement. For
Moisture susceptibility longer soaking time, higher cement content is associated with higher strength, which also indicated the
Portland cement hydration of added cement. Excessive cement caused thinner asphalt film and therefore the improve-
Bentonite ment of strength was relatively lower and the cracking resistance at low temperature was compromised.
Nanoclay The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed after freeze-thaw cycling, the mixture surface
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) changed from a smooth surface with a few wrinkles on edge of small particles to a rougher surface with
gel structure. When the asphalt film was damaged during the freeze-thaw cycling, the infiltrated water
reacted with encountered cement and bentonite cluster and the CeSeH cement hydration product was
formed, sealing cracks or air voids and compensating the strength loss.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
1.1. Cold patch mixtures
Potholes on asphalt pavement surface are great threatens to the
traffic safety and pavement structure adequacy. They are caused by
the loss of mixtures typically due to the freeze-thaw cycling in
winter season. Both hot and cold mixed asphalt mixture are in
practices for pothole repairs for quick repair (Good Mojab and
Romine, 1994; Wilson and Romine, 1993, 2001). Cold patching
mixes use cutback asphalt, a liquid asphalt produced by dissolving
asphalt in a lighter molecular weight hydrocarbon solvent. The
cutback asphalt mixture can be produced in the factory and then
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: qiaodong@seu.edu.cn (Q. Dong), yjwseu@163.com (J. Yuan),
xueqinchen2008@126.com (X. Chen), mxfst@sina.com (X. Ma).
seal in bags or buckets till being carried to the field for patching.
When the cutback asphalt mixture is patched in the field, the sol-
vent evaporates, leaving the asphalt residue as the binder. Ac-
cording to the volatility speed of the solvent, it can be classified as
slow, medium and rapid curing cutbacks. Currently, cutback asphalt
mixture is widely used for pothole patches because it is easy to
operate and proper for small area filling and patching.
Previous studies found that hot mixed patching mixture per-
formed better than cold mixes in terms of indirect strength and
permanent deformation (Dong et al., 2014). However, hot mixes
need a truck with heating equipment and has increased the
equipment and production cost. Cost analysis of pothole repairing
strategy indicates that the cost of hot mixes is higher. In addition,
labor and equipment cost account for majority of the total cost.
Material cost only accounts for 20% for cold mixes patching and
2e5% for hot mixes patching. Cold mix costs more, but it saves large
amount of equipment cost and therefore is more cost-effectiveness.
Since cutback asphalt mixture reduces the energy consumption and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.163
0959-6526/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328
emissions during the production, it is of eco-efficiency and cleaner
production.
Cold mixes are desired to have good workability, adhesiveness,
cohesion, and durability (Prowell and Franklin, 1996). One big
challenge for cold mix patches is the resistance to moisture infil-
tration and freeze-thaw cycling. Moisture infiltration reduce the
adhesion between the aggregate and asphalt, and the freeze-thaw
cycling further aggravate it with the expansion of ice. Field survey
has already indicates that freeze-thaw times accelerate the dete-
rioration of cold mix patches (Dong et al., 2014) and is the main
cause of patch material loss. The cutback asphalt is a dispersion of
asphalt droplets in solvent. When the solvent evaporates, the
asphalt droplets begins to coalesce to form the asphalt film. How-
ever, due to the high viscosity at room temperature, small air
bubbles occur, making the asphalt film prone to be infiltrated by
moisture or unstable during freeze-thaw cycling. Therefore, mois-
ture susceptibility is critical for the durability of cold patch mixes.
1.2. Moisture susceptibility
Moisture in asphalt mixture reduces the adhesion between
aggregate and asphalt, as well as the cohesion within asphalt
mastic (Kiggundu and Roberts, 1988; Roberts, 1991). There have
been many studies on increasing the resistance asphalt mixture to
moisture damage. The most widely used method is to add anti-
stripping additives. Liquid antistripping agents are usually amine-
based chemicals, which can improve the adhesion between
asphalt and aggregate through the interaction between the polar
ends of the antistripping agents and aggregate (Anderson et al.,
1982). Mineral antistripping additives include hydrated lime,
Portland cement, fly ash, flue dust, etc. Hydrated lime is the most
widely used mineral antistripping additive (Little and Epps, 2001;
Little and Petersen, 2005). Previous studies have evaluated the
mechanism of increased resistance to moisture damage through
those additives.
The chemical interaction is critical for the adhesion between
asphalt and aggregate with the existence of water. Asphalt contains
carboxylic acids, which are polar and adhere strongly to dry
aggregate (Robertson, 1991). However, water is also polar and has
stronger adhesion to aggregate. The sodium and potassium salts of
carboxylic acids in asphalt are surfactants or soaps, which are
debonded under the infiltration of water (Plancher et al., 1977).
Hydrated lime or Portland cement contain calcium hydroxide and
other alkaline component, which can improve moisture stripping
resistance. Firstly, the lime and cement can react with the aggregate
forming chemical products that can bond strongly with asphalt.
Secondly, they can consolidate the fine coatings on aggregate sur-
faces through ion pozzolanic reactions between the calcium and
silica, producing calcium rich bonding sites for the acid polar
components of asphalt, including carboxylic acids and phenols.
Thirdly, they can react with carboxylic acids and 2-quinolones so
that the less water sensitive polar components can adsorb onto the
aggregate active sites (Bagampadde et al., 2004; Epps et al., 2003;
Mcgennis et al., 1984). Compared with the hydrated lime, Port-
land cement has two more benefits. The PH value of cement is
higher than that of hydrated lime and enhances the reaction of the
acids in asphalt. The cement particles have large opening air voids
which, absorbing the aromatics, hydrocarbons and asphaltenes
with smaller molecule weight, which improve the gel structure of
asphalt mastics.
1.3. Cement-asphalt mortar and composites
Not only can Portland cement be added in asphalt as mineral
additives to improve moisture stability, but also it can be mixed
321
with asphalt as a composite binder to increase the mechanical
property through hydration. In 1990, Moriyoshi et al. published a
paper in Nature, in which he developed a mixture of cement and
asphalt emulsion to seal the gap between the tunnel and rocks
(Moriyoshi et al., 1990). This composite mixture forms a gel
instantly when mixed and does not disperse in water. Currently,
cement emulsified asphalt mortar (CEAM), a mix of cement, asphalt
emulsion, fine aggregate, and chemical admixtures has also been
widely used as a cushion layer between non-ballasted concrete slab
track for high speed railway and the concrete bed to help dampen
the system (Qiang et al., 2011; Rutherford et al., 2014; Tan et al.,
2013). CEAM's hybrid characteristic, which combines strength of
cement mortar and flexibility of asphalt, play an important role for
a smooth and safe ride of high speed railway.
In Europe, asphalt-Portland cement concrete composite, which
is an open graded asphalt mix with 25e30% air voids filled with
resin modified cement grout (Al-Qadi et al., 1994), have also been
practiced. This composite mixture possesses the benefit of both
Portland cement concrete and asphalt concrete, such as the flexi-
bility of asphalt, and wear, abrasion and strength resistance of
cement concrete. Those studies and practices of cement-asphalt
composites raised a question: if it is feasible and how to incorpo-
rate Portland cement into asphalt mixture to improve its resistance
to moisture damage through its hydration product in addition to
the reactions between the alkaline in cement and the acids in
asphalt.
1.4. Bentonite nanoclay
CEAM utilizes the water in asphalt emulsion for cement hy-
dration while asphalt-cement composites use cement grout. Water
is added into the mixture during preparation for both of them.
However, they cannot consume the water infiltrated into the
asphalt mixture during pavement service. Moriyoshi et al. used
absorbent polymer in the cement and asphalt emulsion to absorb
water and utilization its swelling to seal the between tunnel and
rocks (Moriyoshi et al., 1990), which provoked the authors to seek
an alternative, such as absorbing nanoclay that can be mixed with
cement together to be used in cutback asphalt mixture to absorb
and hydrates with infiltrated water. On the other hand, cement
particle tends to coalesce with each other to form large chunk, it is
expected to be able to disperse evenly in the nanoclay.
Bentonite belongs to the family of nanoclays and can absorb
several times of its dry mass in water (Eisenhour and Brown, 2009).
It is mainly composed of montmorillonite, Al2O3$2SiO2$nH2O,
which includes a 2:1-layer-type crystal structure consists of two
silicon oxygen tetrahedron sandwiching a layer of alumina eight
body. As shown in Fig. 1, because the three-layer sheets are weakly
bonded, with oxygen atoms at the top and bottom, additional water
can easily get in between, which causes it to expand greatly when
added to water, giving reversible cation exchange and very plastic
properties (Sudo et al., 1981). Bentonite has been used in drilling
mud for oil in geotechnical engineering because of its excellent
colloidal properties (Dolz et al., 2007). It is also used a sealant, since
it can swell and provide a self-sealing, low permeability barrier
(Alther, 1987; Billore et al., 2000; Pandey, 2017).
When mixing with Portland cement, bentonite was reported to
exhibit a significant retarding effect at lower replacement level but
an accelerating effect at higher replacement level (Targan et al.,
2002). The hydration products of calcined bentonite and cement
pastes are the same as those of the pure cement pastes, but with
different ratios, crystals and morphologies (Darweesh and Nagieb,
2007). A previous research tested the feasibility of using
bentonite as mineral filler in asphalt mixture and found that adding
20% bentonite by the weight of asphalt improves the properties of
322 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328

Fig. 2. Aggregate gradation of the cutback cold mix.

P ¼ 0:021  a þ 0:056  b þ 0:099  c þ 0:12  d þ 1 (1)

Fig. 1. Layer-structure of bentonite nanoclay.
Where, P ¼ Asphalt content; a ¼ the percentage of aggregate
retained above 2.36 mm, which is 79.2% in this study; b ¼ the
percentage of aggregate between 0.3 and 2.36 mm, which is 7.7% in
the mechanical performance of asphalt binder (Hassan et al., 2012).
this study; c ¼ the percentage of aggregate between 0.075 and
0.3 mm, which is 4.1% in this study; d ¼ the percentage of aggregate
1.5. Objective and scope passing 0.075 mm, which is 9% in this study. According to the
gradation shown in Fig. 2, the values of a, b, c, and d, are 79.2, 7.7, 4.1
The objective of the study is to investigate the feasibility of and 9%, respectively, and the asphalt content estimated by Equation
improving the resistance to moisture damage of cold mixed (1) is 4.8% of the total weight of asphalt and aggregate.
cutback asphalt with the aid of hydration of incorporated Portland
cement. Diesel was used as the solvent to produce cutback asphalt.
2.3. Cement and bentonite
Portland cement along with bentonite was mixed and added to
produce the cold mix. The strength and moisture susceptibility of
Cement and bentonite were added to replace part of the lime-
cured cold mix was tested by Marshall stability, indirect tensile
stone filler in the cold asphalt mixture. The cement is the 42.5 or-
strength and the stability or tensile strength ratio. Scanning elec-
dinary Portland cement with 28d cement mortar compressive
tron microscope (SEM) was then utilized to produce the image of
strength higher than 42.5 MPa. The 0.075 mm sieve passing percent
the cold mix at nanoscale after to exam if the added Portland
of the bentonite is 95% and the absorption is 200%. Details of the
cement hydrated during freeze thaw cycling.
chemical components are listed in Fig. 3. The particle size of cement
and bentonite are similar, generally ranged from 3 to 50 mm. The
2. Materials test investigated three cement contents, which are 20%, 40% and
60% of the total weight of the mix of cement, Bentonite and lime-
2.1. Asphalt and aggregate gradation stone filler. Table 1 shows details of the proportion of the fillers. The
weight of bentonite over cement was set as 0.2 based on previous
To produce the cutback asphalt mix, the conventional 70# studies (Katsioti et al., 2008) and the absorption. For a 0.4 water
asphalt with a penetration of 7.1 mm and 0# diesel were used the over cement ratio, the bentonite over cement ratio was estimated
binder and solvent. Basalt aggregate and limestone mineral filler as 0.2.
was used for the cutback mixes. A gap gradation with similar as the
Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA), was utilized to insure sufficient
resistance to both rutting and moisture stability. Because previous
studies found that could patch mixes with small aggregate size tend
to have low resistance to permanent deformation while mixes with
less fines were prone to moisture stability (Dong et al., 2013). Fig. 2
shows the mixture gradation. The content of mineral filler is 11% of
the total weight of aggregate.

2.2. Cutback mix proportion

An empirical method as shown in equation (1) was utilized to

estimate asphalt content (Cui). This empirical equation is estab-
lished based on the theory of coating aggregate with sufficient
asphalt. High solvent content improves the workability of cutback
mixes while compromises the initial strength. The solvent content
was selected as the 20% of the weight of asphalt and aggregate or
the cutback asphalt (Cui). Fig. 3. Chemical components of the bentonite.
 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328 323

Table 1 it cool down to 80  C to produce Marshall specimens. 1180 g mix

Content of cement and bentonite. was weighted to produce 100-mm diameter Marshall specimen
Cement content Limestone Filler (g) Bentonite (g) Cement (g) with 75 time blows on each side. Then the specimen was cured
0 132 0 0
12 h at room temperature, 48 h in a 60  C oven to accelerate solvent
20% 100.3 5.3 26.4 volatility, and another 12 h at room temperature before extruding
40% 68.6 10.6 52.8 and other tests. Fig. 5 shows the freshly mixed cold mix, the
60% 37 15.8 79.2 specimen after curing and a patch in the field. The patch was
installed to repair a broken corner of a concrete slab on the road of
low traffic volume. No severe material loss, permanent deformation
2.4. Specimen preparation or cracking was observed after 6 months.

The preparation of cutback asphalt mix and the testing plan are
summarized in Fig. 4. To prepare cutback asphalt, the 70# asphalt
was heated in an oven at 120  C for 1 h and then diesel solvent was
added and mixed for 3 min. At the same time, aggregate, cement,
bentonite, and mineral filler were heated in the 120  C oven for 2 h.
After heating the mixing pot to 120  C and the cutback mix was
prepared through following steps:
3. Methodology of tests
Previous studies found that insufficient initial strength and poor
moisture stability for freeze-thaw cycling are the main causes of
cold patch failure. In this study, the initial strength, moisture sta-
bility and cracking resistance at low temperature were evaluated
through laboratory tests.

1. Mix aggregate, cement and bentonite for 60s; 3.1. Initial strength
2. Add cutback asphalt and mix for 60s;
3. Add mineral filler and mix for 60s. The strength of cutback asphalt before fully cured is critical for
the failure of patches. In this study, Marshall stability was tested for
The prepared cutback mix was then left in a sealed bucket to let fully cured specimens as well as those with only 6 h curing at room

Fig. 4. A schematic of mix preparation and testing.

324 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328

Fig. 5. Images of prepared mix, specimen and patch in the field.

temperature. Marshall stability test was conducted according to Stm ¼ average tensile strength of the moisture conditioned
ASTM D6927, which involved soaking the specimens in a 25  C subset (MPa);
water bath for 0.5 h before testing. Std ¼ average tensile strength of the dry subset (MPa).

3.2. Moisture susceptibility

3.3. Cracking resistance at low temperature
Two types of moisture susceptibility tests of two moisture
conditioning method were conducted. The firstly moisture condi- Added more cement could potentially improve the moisture
tioning involves 48 h soaking at 25  C water bath. The Marshall stability cutback mixes and may compromise its ductility or
stability ratio (MSR), which is retained Marshall stability of mois- cracking resistance since cement hydration products are brittle.
ture conditioned samples over the Marshall stability of the dry Indirect tensile strength test was conducted at 0  C to evaluate the
subset, was calculated as an indicator of the moisture susceptibility cracking resistance of cold mixes.
without freeze-thaw cycling.
4. Discussion of results
MStm
MSR ¼  100
MStd
4.1. Initial strength
Where, MSR ¼ Marshall stability ratio (%);
Fig. 6 shows the initial and fully cured Marshall stability of the
cutback mix specimens. It can be seen that replacing 20% and 40% of
Stm ¼ average Marshall stability of moisture conditioned subset
mineral filler with cement improve both the initial and fully cured
(MPa);
strength. The initial stability of control group is only about 50% of
Std ¼ average Marshall stability of the dry subset (MPa).
the fully cured stability, while the initial stability of the 20% cement
content group is around 95% of the fully cured. The relatively lower
The second moisture conditioning involves a freeze-thaw
initial stability at 60% cement replacement indicates that excessive
cycling in accordance with ASTM D4867. The partially saturated
cement caused insufficient asphalt binder and therefore lower
specimens were placed in a freezer at 18  C for 16 h and immersed
cohesion of the cutback mix, since the fineness of cement is higher
in a water bath at 25  C for 24 h. A previous study found that some
than that of mineral filler and there the specific surface area is
cold mix specimen collapsed at the 60  C water bath. In addition,
much higher. In all, improved strength showed that compared with
60  C is less likely to be encountered in the field. Therefore, the
regular mineral filler, cement is a chemically active filler which can
60  C water bath temperature originally required by the ASTM
improve the performance of cutback mix and therefore the risk of
D4867 was changed to 25  C for evaluating cold cutback mixes.
Then, both unconditioned and conditioned specimens were soaked
in 25  C water bath for 2 h to test the indirect tensile strength as
shown in Equation (2). The tensile strength ratio (TSR) as shown in
Equation (3) was calculated as an indicator of the moisture sus-
ceptibility including freeze-thaw cycling.

2P
St ¼ (2)
ptD
Where, St ¼ tensile strength (MPa);

P ¼ maximum load (N);

t ¼ specimen height immediately before tensile test (mm);
D ¼ specimen diameter (mm).

Stm
TSR ¼  100 (3)
Std

Where, TSR ¼ tensile strength ratio (%); Fig. 6. Marshall stability of initial and fully cured samples.
 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328 325

early age distress could be reduced when used in the field.

4.2. Moisture susceptibility

Fig. 7 shows the moisture susceptibility test with soaking con-

dition. It can be clearly seen that he MSR of mixes without cement is
only around 70%, whereas specimens including cement show
significantly higher retained MS and the MSR are close to 100%. It
indicates the cement hydration during soaking improved the
strength of specimens. Furthermore, higher cement content shows
decreased MS and MSR, therefore the optimum cement replace-
ment is 20%.
Fig. 8 shows the moisture susceptibility test involving a freeze-
thaw cycling condition. Generally, partially replacing mineral filler
with cement improves the IDT strength as well as the TSR. 20%
cement replacement shows the highest TSR. It is worth noting that,
as shown in Fig. 8 (a), the 40% group has the highest unconditioned
IDT strength, while in Fig. 7 (a), the 20% group has the highest
unconditioned stability. This is because IDT test involves soaking
specimens in the water bath for 2 h, while the Marshal stability test
involves 0.5 h soaking. Longer soaking time of IDT specimens allows
more cement to hydrate and therefore improves the strength.

4.3. Cracking resistance at low temperature

Fig. 9 shows the tensile strength at 0  C, which clearly shows

that the 20% cement replacement improves the tensile strength or
cracking resistance at low temperature. The higher cement

Fig. 8. Moisture susceptibility test with freeze-thaw condition.

replacement groups shows reduced cracking resistance. The tensile

strength at low temperature is mainly determined by the cohesion
of the mixture. Excessive cement increases the specific surface area
and reduces the effective asphalt binder or asphalt film thickness.
Therefore, the cohesion at low temperature is reduced.

5. SEM images of the cutback mixture

Similar with asphalt emulsions, cutback asphalt mixture also

contains more air voids in the asphalt film, which possess a concern

Fig. 7. Moisture susceptibility test with soaking condition. Fig. 9. IDT strength at 0  C.
326 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328
for its moisture susceptibility. As shown in Fig. 10(a), in the freshly
mixed cutback asphalt mixture, the cutback asphalt which coats
the aggregate, is a dispersion of asphalt droplets, cement and
bentonite clusters and air bubbles in diesel. When the asphalt
droplets coalesce during breaking, they form an unstructured
honeycomb. When the diesel evaporates, also called curing, the
asphalt “honeycomb” begins to collapse under gravity, forming an
asphalt coat containing cement and bentonite cluster and air
bubbles. Since the asphalt's viscosity is very high at room tem-
perature, it takes a long time for all the air voids left by diesel to
disappear.
As shown in Fig. 10(b), after curing starts, smaller asphalt
droplets coalesce with each other to form large droplets and the
aggregates are firstly glued by those big asphalt droplets, which is
similar with emulsified asphalt. Then, with sufficient curing time
and traffic compaction, the big asphalt droplets continue to coa-
lesce to form more uniform asphalt film as shown in Fig. 10(c).
Cured cutback asphalt includes cement and bentonite clusters, and
a few diesel residue and air bubbles.
Results of the laboratory tests show that Marshall stability ratio
and TSR are higher than 100%, indicating strength gain during
moisture conditioning, which may be caused by potential cement
hydration. To investigate the if cement hydration occurred, scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to capture the
surface of the cold mixed cutback asphalt. SEM is an electron mi-
croscope, taking images by scanning the surface with a focused
beam of electrons and can achieve resolution higher than 1 nm.
Fig. 11 shows the cement, bentonite, cutback mix before and after
freeze-thaw cycling at 10,000 magnifications. A single aggregate
was picked from the 20% cement content specimens to take the
SEM images.
It can be seen Fig. 11(d) that, for the mixture before freeze-thaw
cycling, a relatively smooth surface with a few wrinkles on edge of
small particles is observed. For the mixture after freeze-thaw
cycling as shown in Fig. 11(e), the surface becomes rougher, gel
structure and open air voids can be observed. The gel structure is
different with the typical dense and smooth surface of traditional
asphalt mixture and is similar with the Calcium-silicate hydrate
(CeSeH) from cement hydration as shown in Fig. 11(c). It is esti-
mated that asphalt film is damaged during the freeze-thaw con-
dition and the surface becomes rough and the infiltrated water
reacts with the encountered cement and bentonite cluster and the
CeSeH gel is formed. Although the mix surface is still coated with
asphalt film, the gel type texture indicates the potential cement
hydration.
Fig. 10. Curing of cutback asphalt containing cement and bentonite.
6. Conclusions
This laboratory study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of
improve the resistance to moisture damage of cold mixed cutback
asphalt mixture with the aid of hydration of incorporated Portland
cement. Bentonite, a nanoclay capable of absorbing water and seal
cracks through swelling was also added. To improve the aggregate
skeleton of the cold mix, a gap gradation adopted by SMA was used.
Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the initial strength,
moisture susceptibility involving both soaking and freeze-thaw
cycling, and cracking resistance at low temperature. SEM was
used to capture the images of specimens before and after freeze-
thaw cycling. Based on the test results, some conclusions can be
summarized as follows:
1) Replacing mineral filler with cement greatly improved both the
initial and fully cured Marshall stability. 20% cement content
group had the highest initial and cured strength. Excessive
cement caused insufficient asphalt binder and therefore the
improvement of strength was relatively lower.
2) Adding cement significantly improved Marshall stability after
24 h soaking, the MSR was improved from 70% to around 100%,
indicating the potential cement hydration during soaking. The
20% cement content had both highest Marshall stability and
MSR.
3) Results of the moisture susceptibility test involving a freeze-
thaw cycling condition also indicated that added cement
improved the TSR. It is noted that 40% cement content group
had the highest unconditioned IDT strength while the 20% group
had the highest unconditioned Marshall stability. This is
because the IDT test involved soaking specimens in the water
bath for 2 h, while the Marshal stability test only soaked for
0.5 h. For longer soaking time, higher cement content had
higher strength, which also indicated the hydration of added
cement.
4) Only the 20% cement content group improved cracking resis-
tance at low temperature which was mainly determined by the
cohesion of the mixture. Excessive cement increased specific
surface area and reduced asphalt film thickness and therefore
the cohesion at low temperature was compromised.
5) Freshly mixed cutback asphalt was a dispersion of asphalt
droplets, cement and bentonite clusters. and air voids in diesel.
The cured cutback asphalt included the cement and bentonite
clusters, diesel residue and a few air voids. The SEM images
indicated after freeze-thaw cycling, the mixture surface changed
 Q. Dong et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 176 (2018) 320e328
Fig. 11. SEM images of cutback mix specimen before after freeze-thaw cycling.
from a smooth surface with a few wrinkles on edge of small
particles to a rougher surface with gel structure. When the
asphalt film was damaged during the freeze-thaw cycling, the
infiltrated water reacted with encountered cement and
bentonite cluster and the CeSeH cement hydration product was
formed, which would seal the cracks and compensate the
strength loss.
In all, this study showed that the moisture susceptibility of
cutback mixtures was substantially improved through the hydra-
tion of cement and bentonite additives. However, there are still
several questions remained to be studies in the future. Firstly, the
proportion and mixing process of cement, bentonite and mineral
filler need to be optimized through laboratory tests. Secondly,
advanced techniques need to be employed to evaluate the hydra-
tion products in the asphalt mixture. For example, it would be
interesting to see if cement hydration heat can be detected. Thirdly,
it is interesting to investigate the mechanism of the interaction of
cement hydration and bentonite absorption and sealing for infil-
trated moisture in the cutback asphalt mixture.
327
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by the thirteen-fifth research project
(Project no. 7621000131, 7621000132, and 7621000133) founded by
Jiangsu Department of Transportation, and a research project titled
“Data mining of Highway Pavement Performance and Evaluation of
Maintenance Treatment Effectiveness” (Project no. 3221007409)
founded by Southeast University. The contents of this paper reflect
the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the
accuracy of the data presented herein, and do not necessarily
constitute a standard, specification or regulation.
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