Asphalt 

Binder Rheological 11‐Mar‐21

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering 

Asphalt Binder Rheological by Dr. Mahmoud Enieb
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0.17±0.02
0.28±0.03

0.31
0.25
0.19
0.15

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Selection of Mineral Aggregate
• Two categories are referred to as consensus standards and source
(agency) standards.
• In addition to the consensus ‫ ﺇﺟﻣﺎﻉ‬and source standards, Superpave uses
a gradation system that is based on the 0.45 power gradation chart to
determine the design aggregate structure.

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Selection of Mineral Aggregate

Source Aggregate Properties:

 Toughness (Los Angeleos Abrasion, loss 35-45%). For coarse aggregate only.
 Soundness (Saturated solution of sodium sulfate followed by oven drying, loss 10-
20%).
 Deleterious materials (clay lumps, shale, wood, and mica, 0.2 to 10%).

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Selection of Mineral Aggregate
Gradation:

Superpave gradation limits

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Superpave Asphalt Mixture Design Procedures (Cont.)

Volumetric Properties:

 Bulk specific density (Gmb),

 Air void content (Va , Pa, VTM )
 Voids in mineral aggregate (VMA),
 Maximum theoretical specific gravity (Gmm), from Lab and
 Voids filled with asphalt (VFA).

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Superpave Asphalt Mixture Design Procedures (Cont.)

The Design Asphalt Contents:

 The design asphalt binder content is established at 4.0 percent air

voids.
 All other mixture properties are checked at the design asphalt binder
content to verify that they meet criteria.

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Number of Initial (Nini), Design (Ndes) and Maximum (Nmax) Ggyrations Required for 
Various
Traffic Levels and Average Temperature Environments

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98% Gmm @ Nmax

89% Gmm @ Nini

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Voids in Mineral Aggregate Criteria at Ndesign

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Voids Filled with Asphalt Criteria at Ndesign

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Superpave Manual Example
• Table below gives the volumetric design values obtained for
an estimated design asphalt content of 4.8%. Figure below
shows the four plots Va, VMA, VFA, and density at Ndesign
versus the asphalt percent. Note that these percentages are
the estimated asphalt content of 4.8%, 0.5% below, 0.5%
above, and 1% above the estimated asphalt content.
Nominal maximum size of the aggregate mixture is 19 mm.
Traffic load (ESAL)  3x105

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Sample Volumetric Design data at Ndesign
for Superpave Design Manual Example

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Check the criteria
• The asphalt content at 4% air void is 5.7% from Figure a.
• From Table up, the minimum requirement for VMA for the
design aggregate structure (19‐mm nominal maximum size) is
13. This condition is satisfied from Figure b.
• The VFA for an asphalt content of 5.7 is about 68% which
satisfies the Superpave VFA criteria as shown in Table up.
• The results indicate that the paving mixture meets the
Superpave requirements for VMA and VFA

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x100

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