Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Use of a warm mix asphalt additive to reduce the production temperatures

and to improve the performance of asphalt rubber mixtures
Joel R.M. Oliveira a, *, Hugo M.R.D. Silva a, Liliana P.F. Abreu b, Sara R.M. Fernandes b
a
C-TAC, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal
b
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal

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

Article history: Asphalt rubber mixtures are often described as environmentally friendly mixtures due to the incorpo-
Received 17 April 2012 ration of recycled rubber from used tires and due to their improved service life. In fact, their fatigue
Received in revised form cracking and rut resistance properties are better than those of conventional asphalt concrete mixtures.
11 September 2012
However, asphalt rubber mixtures demand higher production temperatures than conventional mixtures
Accepted 16 September 2012
Available online 11 October 2012
due to the higher viscosity of the asphalt rubber binder. The objective of this paper is to assess the
efficiency of using a surfactant based additive in the production of warm mix asphalts, by lowering the
mixing temperatures of asphalt rubber and asphalt concrete mixtures without changing their perfor-
Keywords:
Asphalt rubber
mance. Several laboratory tests were carried out on asphalt rubber and asphalt concrete mixtures, with
Warm mix asphalt and without the additive, in order to evaluate and compare the performance of the mixtures. It was
Temperature reduction concluded that the incorporation of small amounts of a surfactant based additive allowed reducing the
Asphalt performance production temperatures of both types of mixture by 30
C without compromising their performance,
Working conditions and this can be seen as a great step forward towards the production of cleaner asphalt rubber mixtures.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
According to Singh et al. (2009), worldwide generation of waste
tires amounts to 5 Mt/y, representing 2% of total annual solid waste,
and their disposal has proved to be extremely difficult due to their
highly resistant chemical, biological and physical properties. The
United States (US) discarded around 290 million tires in 2003, and
in the same year the European Union (EU) generated approximately
260 million waste tires.
Waste management is critical problem for a sustainable devel-
opment. In fact, this subject interconnects several areas, not only
the environment, but also the economy, the security and other
social issues (Hamzah et al., 2010). The need to create more
sustainable technologies in the construction industry has lead to
the incorporation of waste tires in the production of both concrete
and asphalt mixtures. Some examples of the use of ground tire
rubber in cementitious materials can be found in the literature in
order to reduce the structural weight (Pelisser et al., 2012) and/or
evaluate their durability (Richardson et al., 2012; Bravo and de
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ351 253 510200; fax: þ351 253 510217.
E-mail addresses: joliveira@civil.uminho.pt (J.R.M. Oliveira),
civil.uminho.pt (H.M.R.D. Silva), a51302@alunos.uminho.pt (L.P.F. Abreu), a54268@
alunos.uminho.pt (S.R.M. Fernandes).
Brito, 2012). Several other studies have been carried out
regarding the assessment of the performance of asphalt mixtures
with incorporation of crumb rubber obtained from recycled tires in
the lab (Fontes et al., 2010; Pasquini et al., 2011) or in the field
(Chui-Te, 2008), either using the wet process (Fontes et al., 2010;
Pasquini et al., 2011) or the dry process (Moreno et al., 2012, 2011;
Weidong, 2007). Other studies were performed to evaluate the use
of crumb rubber in reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) mixtures
(Xiao et al., 2009a) or to assess the acoustic performance of asphalt
rubber (AR) mixtures (Paje et al., 2010).
The addition of crumb rubber to virgin bitumen (Peralta et al.,
2010) produces binders with improved resistance to rutting
(Fontes et al., 2010), fatigue cracking, and thermal cracking while
allowing a reduction on the thickness of asphalt overlays and
reflective cracking potential (Thodesen et al., 2009; Lee et al., 2008),
possibly with the use of specific additives (Miriam, 2009). However,
the production temperatures of the resulting AR mixtures are
usually very high (Akisetty et al., 2009). Thus, this type of mixture is
a potentially successful application of the warm mix asphalt
(WMA) technology, as has recently been object of study (Akisetty
et al., 2009, 2011; Xiao et al., 2009b).
In fact, in order to reduce the production temperature and,
hugo@
consequently, the energy consumption in the manufacture of
asphalt mixtures, a new concept was developed and has been
tested and implemented in the last few years. This is the WMA

0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.09.047
16 J.R.M. Oliveira et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22

technology (Rubio et al., 2012) which intends to lower the

production temperature, but keeping the mechanical and rheo-
logical properties of warm asphalt mixtures as close as possible to
those of conventional mixtures (Zhao et al., 2012; Silva et al., 2010a)
in order to increase their sustainability, which should be assessed
by a Life Cycle Analysis similar to those available in the literature
(Huang et al., 2009; Chiu et al., 2008; White et al., 2010).
WMA technology can reduce the temperatures of mixing and
application of the mixture by 20e30
C in comparison to the
traditional Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) (Prowell, 2007), which turns
into a reduction on the energy consumption during the
manufacturing process (Silva et al., 2009). Moreover, the use of this
technology leads to a decrease on the emissions of gases and odors
from asphalt plants, and an improvement on the personnel
working conditions (Hurley and Prowell, 2005a, 2005b). With
respect to gas emissions, there are studies that report reductions of Fig. 1. Grading curve and grading envelope of the studied AC mixture.
about 30e40% in emissions of CO2; 35% in emissions of SO2; 50% in
emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC); 10e30% in emis-
sions of CO; 60e70% in emissions of NOx and 20e25% in emissions The following sections describe the materials used throughout
of dust (Prowell, 2007). Another benefit associated to this tech- the whole investigation.
nology is the possibility of extending the construction season and
the time available for compaction of the asphalt mixture during 2.1.1. Aggregates
a certain day (Silva et al., 2010b). All aggregates used in this study are igneous rocks (granite),
WMA technologies can be classified by separating those that use while the filler is limestone. Each mixture was studied separately in
water from those that use organic or synthetic additives to affect order to fulfil the requirements of the material specifications
the temperature reduction. These methods are based on process (Portuguese appendix of EN 13108-1), although they can both be
engineering, aerogenous agents or special bitumen and additives used as a surface course mixture. All aggregates were characterized
(Silva et al., 2010b; EAPA, 2007). and their grading curves were analyzed in order to meet the
With respect to the selection of WMA additives, there is a wide grading envelope of a conventional dense asphalt concrete (AC 14)
range of options (Xiao et al., 2009b; Silva et al., 2010b; Shang et al., surface course mixture and a gap-graded asphalt rubber (AR 14)
2011). These additives can be separated in two groups: foaming surface course mixture, as can be observed in Figs. 1 and 2.
additives and organic additives (Silva et al., 2010a; Sheth, 2010). On
the present article, the additive used comprises surface active agents 2.1.2. Binders
(surfactants) and was especially developed for WMA applications The virgin bitumen used in the conventional asphalt concrete
(Gonzalez-Leon et al., 2009), although this type of agent is essen- (AC) mixture is a straight run 50/70 penetration grade bitumen,
tially used as anti-stripping agents and as asphalt emulsifiers (Al- since it is one of the most commonly used binders in Portugal. The
Sabagh, 2002; DelRio-Prat et al., 2011; Xiao and Amirkhanian, asphalt rubber binder was produced by adding 21% (by weight of
2010). This additive does not affect significantly the mechanical binder) of crumb rubber to the 50/70 pen bitumen, using an
and rheological properties of bitumen, which occurs with the use of overhead stirrer with a blending speed of 500 rpm and a digestion
other additives (You et al., 2011; Morea et al., 2012; Xiao et al., 2012), time of 60 min at a temperature of 180
C, in order to obtain
and it acts at the interface between mineral aggregate and bitumen, a homogeneous binder. The rubber was obtained from used tires by
in an analogous way to a surfactant, at the interface between water the cryogenic grinding process and with a maximum nominal size
and bitumen (Sheth, 2010; Gonzalez-Leon et al., 2009). of 0.6 mm.
The new combination of the mentioned types of technologies
(asphalt rubber and surfactant based WMA additive), as presented 2.1.3. Warm mix asphalt additive
in the current paper, results in a significant improvement on the In the study previously mentioned (Silva et al., 2010b) it was
production conditions of long-lasting asphalt mixtures, by reducing possible to observe that the selected additive would improve the
the temperature at which the mixtures are produced and com-
pacted, improving the personnel working conditions, with the
incorporation of very limited amounts of additive.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Materials

The current paper presents the results of a series of tests carried

out on asphalt mixtures that are produced with very hard binders,
in this case, asphalt rubber (AR) mixtures, in comparison to
conventional asphalt mixtures. Due to the high viscosity of the AR
binder, high temperatures have to be used in their production stage
to obtain an adequate workability. In order to reduce those
temperatures a WMA additive was used, which was selected
according to the results of a previous study (Silva et al., 2010b), in
which different WMA additives were used to reduce the production
temperature of a conventional asphalt mixture. Fig. 2. Grading curve and grading envelope of the studied AR mixture.
 J.R.M. Oliveira et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22 17

workability of the mixture, while slightly softening the binder.

Thus, it was concluded that this type of additive would be adequate
to use in asphalt mixtures with a very viscous binder (like asphalt
rubber mixtures), which is the main aim of the present article. In
this type of asphalt mixtures, high production temperatures are
usually applied, and a reduction on the temperature would mean
a significant improvement on the working conditions and a cleaner
production environment (reduction of energy consumption and gas
emissions). Furthermore, it would result in a lower aging effect of
the temperature on the final properties of the binders.
The additive used in this work is liquid at room temperature and
fully compatible with bitumen, with a viscosity at room tempera-
ture (25
C) of 0.63 Pa s, which makes it easy to obtain a homoge-
neous binder (Gonzalez-Leon et al., 2009). It is a patented
formulation of surfactant based molecules (ionic and non-ionic)
that were specifically chosen for WMA applications and are
capable of changing the interfacial interactions between the
mineral aggregates and bitumen, and consequently, the way the
mineral interact between each other. A smaller amount of additive
Fig. 3. Penetration test results of AC and AR binders with different percentages of
is required to cover the surface of the mineral aggregates than to
additive.
actually change the properties of the whole volume of bitumen.
This is the reason why such a small amount of chemical additive,
into a specified steel compaction mould. The mixture is then
between 0.3% and 0.6% (by weight of bitumen), is required to
compacted with the specified impact compactor by a sliding mass
produce WMA. At this small concentration of additive, even if it is
that is allowed to fall from a specified height with a specified
a liquid with a lower viscosity than hot bitumen, the properties of
number of blows within a specified time onto the foot of the
the bitumen remain mainly unchanged. The viscosity and
hammer, located on top of the asphalt specimen. The specimen is
mechanical properties of the bitumen containing a chemical
then allowed to cool to room temperature.
additive for WMA are not usually modified by its presence.
Three temperatures were used for the production of each WMA
mixture during these compactability tests. The first temperature
2.2. Methods
corresponds to a reduction of 20
C in comparison to that of the
equivalent HMA, while the second and third temperatures were
The methodologies used to obtain the results presented in
defined to be 10
C lower. Thus, the conventional mixture (AC-
Section 3 are presented below. First, the properties of the binders
HMA) was produced at 160
C and the AC-WMA mixture at 140, 130
used in this study were analyzed to determine the optimal
and 120
C, respectively, while the AR-HMA mixture was produced
percentage of additive. The production conditions of the WMA
at 175
C and the AR-WMA mixture was produced at 155, 145 and
mixtures were evaluated next with compactability tests. Slabs were
135
C, respectively.
then produced for each mixture, from which cores were extracted
During the compaction process, the variation of the thickness of
in order to carry out performance related tests and evaluate the
each specimen was continuously recorded, by using a linear vari-
efficiency of the WMA technology.
able differential transformer (LVDT), as a function of the corre-
sponding number of blows (up to 200 blows). Three specimens
2.2.1. Study of the binder characteristics and selection of additive
were used for each studied mixture and temperature.
content
The production temperature that would be used for each WMA
Prior to the assessment of the characteristics of the binders used
mixture would correspond to the lower temperature that results in
in the present study, it was necessary to determine the optimal
amount of additive that should be used in the production of the
WMA mixtures.
This preliminary study included the addition of five different
percentages of additive (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5%, by mass of
binder) to samples of both 50/70 pen bitumen and AR binder,
which were then characterized through penetration (European
standard EN 1426) and softening point (EN 1427).
Based on the results obtained, dynamic viscosity tests (EN
13302) were also carried out at various temperatures (Silva et al.,
2009) for the binder produced with the optimum additive content.

2.2.2. Methodology used to select the production temperatures

An important issue for the success of WMA technology is the
definition of the production temperatures. Therefore, compact-
ability tests (EN 12697-10 standard) were carried out at different
temperatures for both WMA mixtures (AC and AR) using the
Marshall impact compactor (EN 12697-30) with a measuring
device for automatically recording the thickness of the specimen
after each blow. During this part of the work, the specimens were
prepared with freshly mixed (EN 12697-35) asphalt mixtures, at Fig. 4. Softening point (ring & ball) test results of AC and AR binders with different
the selected temperatures, after which the mixture is transferred percentages of additive.
18 J.R.M. Oliveira et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22
Fig. 5. Dynamic viscosity of the binders used in hot and warm AC and AR mixtures.
a value of air voids content similar to that of the equivalent HMA, in
order to optimize the efficiency of the additive.
2.2.3. Methods used to evaluate the performance of the mixtures
Water sensitivity of asphalt mixtures is a property directly
related to the performance and durability of these materials during
the road pavement life. Therefore, is it important to assess whether
the additive used would compromise the performance of the
mixtures. The evaluation of this property is determined in Europe
by the EN 12697-12 standard, according to which, two groups of
three specimens are tested for the indirect tensile strength (ITS)
after a different conditioning period (one group is kept dry and the
other is immersed in water). With this test, it is possible to evaluate
the effect of the water on the weakening of the bond between
aggregates and binder and, consequently, on the strength of the
mixture, by calculating the average ITS value of each group and the
indirect tensile strength ratio (ITSR), which corresponds to the ratio
between the ITS of the wet group (ITSw) and the dry group (ITSd) of
specimens. In the present study, the specimens were cored from
a slab compacted in the roller compactor (EN 12697-33) and then
the indirect tensile test was carried out according to the EN 12697-
23 standard, after a volumetric characterization of the specimens
(to determine the voids content, in order to assure that they are
identical and typically around 4%).
The rutting resistance of both types of mixture was then
assessed by means of the Wheel Tracking Test (WTT), according to
the EN 12697-22 standard, using the small device and the proce-
dure B (in air). Therefore, two slabs were prepared for each mixture
(with the dimensions of 30  30  4 cm3), and tested up to 10,000
cycles. The main parameters obtained from this test are the Wheel
Tracking Slope in air (WTSAIR), calculated between the 5000th and
Fig. 6. Compactability test results of the AC mixture at different temperatures.
Fig. 7. Compactability test results of the AR mixture at different temperatures.
the 10,000th cycles, and the Mean Proportional Rut Depth in air
(PRDAIR), according to the thickness of the specimen. Based on the
summer climatic conditions of the region, a 50
C temperature was
selected for the test, as being representative of the hot summer
days that would influence more the resistance to permanent
deformation of the mixtures.
The stiffness modulus of bituminous mixtures is one of the most
important properties for the design of flexible pavements. In the
present work this property was assessed using prismatic speci-
mens, with the four-point bending test configuration (4PB-PR),
according to the EN 12697-26 standard. The test was carried out for
a range of frequencies (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10 Hz), in order to
cover a wide variety of loading conditions, for the temperature of
20
C.
Finally, the fatigue resistance of all studied mixtures was also
determined using the four-point bending test procedure, according
to the EN 12697-24 standard. The tests were carried out in strain
control mode, at 20
C and using a frequency of 10 Hz. For these test
conditions, the failure criterion is the number of cycles corre-
sponding to a reduction of the stiffness modulus to half of its initial
value.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Selection of additive content
The additive content used in each studied mixture was selected
according to the results of penetration and softening point obtained
from samples of the original AC and AR binders and from samples
prepared with the incorporation of different percentages of addi-
tive (between 0.1 and 0.5%). The results of such tests are presented
in Figs. 3 and 4.
Fig. 8. Compactability test results of the AC and AR mixtures for the selected
temperatures.
 J.R.M. Oliveira et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22
Fig. 9. Results of the indirect tensile strength of the studied mixtures.
Fig. 10. Results of the water sensitivity tests (ITSR vs. air voids content) of the studied
mixtures.
As can be observed in Figs. 3 and 4, there are no significant
differences between the results obtained for the different
percentages of additive studied. Similar results were obtained in
a previous study on the use of the same additive (Gonzalez-Leon
et al., 2009). Based on these results, a percentage of 0.3% of addi-
tive was selected for the conventional asphalt mixture, which is
also the dosage recommended by the additive manufacturers.
However, a higher percentage (0.5%) was selected to the AR mixture
since it comprises a harder binder that will show a lower work-
ability at lower temperatures. Thus the higher additive percentage
should allow obtaining a similar temperature reduction as that of
the conventional mixture.
In order to confirm if the lower influence of the WMA additive
on the binder properties would be maintained for higher produc-
tion temperatures, the binders produced with the selected additive
contents were tested for dynamic viscosity at different tempera-
tures. The test results are shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 11. Example of the effect of the WMA additive on the WTT final rut deformation obtained for the AR mixtures, at 50
C: a) WTT in operation; b) AR-HMA specimen; c) AR-WMA
specimen.
19
The results of the dynamic viscosity tests show a similar trend of
those obtained in the other binder tests, confirming the limited
influence of the additive on the properties of the binders, although
a slightly higher modification could be observed for the AR binder,
which may be due to the higher additive content. It can also be
observed that the viscosity of the AR binder is much higher than
that of the AC binder, thus justifying one of the main aims of this
paper.
3.2. Selection of production temperatures based on compactability
tests
In order to study the production temperatures of the WMA
mixtures, compactability tests were carried out at different
temperatures using the Marshall impact compactor. The results of
those tests are presented in Figs. 6 and 7 for the AC and AR mixtures
and a summary of the results corresponding to the selected
temperatures is presented in Fig. 8.
Comparing the compaction curves of the different mixtures, it
can be seen that the change of the production temperature has
a significant effect on the compactability and on the volumetric
properties of both types of mixture. The target air voids range of
each mixture at the reference compaction energy of 150 blows is
represented in Figs. 6 and 7 with the shadowed area. It can be
concluded that the lowest temperatures tested in each WMA
mixture resulted in air void values close to the upper limit or out of
the range specified. Therefore, a more conservative (higher)
temperature was chosen in order to obtain air voids of the WMA
mixtures closer to the range average value and to the value ob-
tained for each HMA mixture. Thus, as can be observed in Fig. 8,
a reduction of 30
C was selected for both mixtures (from 160
C to
130
C for the AC mixture and from 175
C to 145
C for the AR
mixture).
Although this WMA additive seems to be a valid alternative to
produce AC and AR mixtures, the efficiency of the additive in
reducing the production temperature would have to be confirmed
by performance tests carried out on all mixtures in order to discard
potential negative effects of the additive in the final properties of
the WMA mixtures, and consequently in their life cycle. This was
assessed by the results presented in the following section.
3.3. Performance of the mixtures
3.3.1. Water sensitivity and indirect tensile strength
The results of the indirect tensile strength are presented in Fig. 9
and the water sensitivity tests are presented in Fig. 10, together
with the mean air voids content of the tested specimens.
The results of the indirect tensile strength tests show that the
additive barely changed the strength of the dry specimens while
significantly improving the strength of the wet specimens. This
resulted on a reduced water sensitivity of both WMA mixtures. This
20 J.R.M. Oliveira et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22

Fig. 12. Main results of the wheel tracking tests carried out on both types of mixture.
Fig. 14. Phase angle of the studied mixtures obtained at 20
C for different frequencies.

effect is less observed in the AR mixture due to the higher binder

3.3.3. Stiffness modulus
content of this type of mixture, which is also associated to slightly
The results obtained in the stiffness modulus tests are presented
lower air voids content. The additive was also effective on
in Figs. 13 and 14. Fig. 13 represents the evolution of the stiffness
improving the workability of the WMA mixtures at the selected
modulus of both HMA and WMA asphalt concrete and asphalt
reduced temperatures since the air voids content obtained on both
rubber mixtures with the frequency of the load applications at
types of mixture are slightly lower than those obtained in the HMA
20
C while Fig. 14 represents the phase angle obtained for those
mixtures.
mixtures in the same testing conditions.
As can be concluded from the analysis of Figs. 13 and 14, the
3.3.2. Resistance to permanent deformation
WMA additive has very limited influence on the stiffness modulus
The resistance of asphalt mixtures to permanent deformation
and phase angle of the studied mixtures, as previously observed
(usually referred to as rut resistance), may be assessed by wheel
when evaluating the effect of the additive in the penetration of the
tracking tests, as that presented in Fig. 11, which also shows the
binders. The stiffness is mainly controlled by the composition of the
final rut deformation of the tests carried out on both HMA and
mixtures and by the properties of the binder, and thus the AR
WMA AR mixtures.
mixture has a low stiffness modulus due to its higher binder
As previously mentioned, the main parameters obtained from
content and a low phase angle due to the higher elastic behavior of
this test are the Wheel Tracking Slope in air (WTSAIR), and the Mean
the AR binder.
Proportional Rut Depth in air (PRDAIR). For a comparative analysis,
the results obtained for each mixture are plotted together in Fig. 12.
3.3.4. Fatigue cracking resistance
The conventional AC-HMA mixture showed the higher suscep-
The fatigue cracking resistance of an asphalt mixture is generally
tibility to deform permanently in the presence of high tempera-
represented by a fatigue line that represents the number of load
tures, while the AR-HMA mixture showed a better performance
applications that it can withstand for a given applied strain. The
due to its significantly harder binder. Nevertheless, the WMA
fatigue cracking results obtained for the studied mixtures for
additive was able to slightly improve the rutting resistance
a temperature of 20
C and a frequency of 10 Hz are presented in
performance of both types of mixture even though they were
Fig. 15.
produced at much lower temperatures, confirming the efficiency of
Again, the influence of the WMA additive on the fatigue
the WMA additive, even at very low dosages as those used in the
performance of the mixtures is very limited, as can be observed in
present study (0.3 and 0.5%, by weight of binder). Both parameters
Fig. 15, although a slightly reduction of the fatigue resistance could
(WTSAIR and PRDAIR) showed lower values for the WMA mixtures,
be observed only in the AC-WMA mixture. As usual, the AR
as can be observed in Fig. 12. The lower deformation of AR warm
mixtures presented a fatigue life much higher than that of AC
mixture is also visible in Fig. 11 (b and c).
mixtures, due to the use of a higher binder content together with

Fig. 13. Stiffness modulus of the studied mixtures obtained at 20
C for different Fig. 15. Fatigue performance of AC and AR mixtures at 20
C (WMA vs. conventional
frequencies. HMA).
 J.R.M. Oliveira et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 41 (2013) 15e22
the elasticity provided by the rubber modification. It can be
concluded that the studied WMA additive is very effective in
reducing the production temperatures without compromising the
performance of the mixtures, namely in terms of fatigue cracking
resistance, which is one of the main fundamental properties of
asphalt mixtures.
4. Conclusions
Asphalt rubber mixtures are often mentioned in the literature as
high performance asphalt mixtures due to their increased resis-
tance to permanent deformation and fatigue cracking. However,
they are also a type of mixture that demands high production
temperatures and energy consumption. Therefore, it is very
important to develop new technologies or cleaner production
processes that can reduce the production temperatures and
maintain the best properties of such mixtures. The present paper
shows the results of a laboratory study carried out with the incor-
poration of a surfactant WMA additive on asphalt rubber (AR)
mixtures. The results obtained were compared with a conventional
asphalt concrete (AC) mixture produced with the same additive and
both mixtures were compared with control HMA mixtures
produced without additives at higher temperatures. The main
conclusions that can be drawn from this study are presented below:
 The additive used does not seem to extensively affect the
evaluated properties of the binders within the range of incor-
poration rates used (0.1e0.5%, by mass of binder);
 The selected incorporation rates (0.3% for the AC-WMA
mixture and 0.5% for the AR-WMA mixture) showed a very
good efficiency in reducing the production temperature, being
possible to reduce 30
C for both mixtures, in comparison to the
HMA mixtures;
 Due to the surfactant properties of the additive, both WMA
mixtures showed a better performance in terms of water
sensitivity, since the bond between aggregates and binder was
improved, even at lower production and compaction temper-
atures at which the coating of the aggregates is generally more
difficult to achieve;
 The rut resistance of both WMA mixtures was slightly higher
than that of the corresponding HMA mixtures. This can be
associated with the better workability of the WMA mixtures,
improving the mixtures performance;
 Two of the main properties of asphalt mixtures used for
pavement design are their stiffness modulus and fatigue
cracking resistance. The results obtained for these properties
showed that the additive does not affect the performance of
the studied mixtures, while improving their production
conditions;
 In summary, the surfactant based WMA additive studied in the
present paper can be used to produce cleaner AR and AC
mixtures with a performance as good as traditional HMAs,
improving the production conditions and the energy efficiency
of asphalt plants.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support given by the
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) to the
Territory, Environment and Construction Centre, through the project
PTDC/ECM/119179/2010 and the Strategic Project e UI 4047 e 2011e
2012. Thanks are also due to the Companies “CEPSA” (for the supply
of the virgin bitumen), “Recipneu” (for the supply of the crumb
rubber) and “Bezerras Quarry” (for the supply of the aggregates).
21
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