Abstract
The presence of excess pore water in the bitumen stabilized materials (BSMs) can result in a rapid deterioration due to moisture damage. The process associated with moisture ingress and damage is complex and can occur over an extended period in-service. In the absence of a research method that realistically simulates the possible mechanisms of moisture damage, a surrogate, laboratory-based moisture conditioning method was developed. This method aims to accelerate the ingress of moisture into the mix so that the evaluation of its effect on mixture stiffness (Mr) and shear parameters (C & φ) can be made. This paper presents the results of an experiment aimed at determining whether cyclic pulses of water under pressure into BSMs induce sufficient, measurable damage to a triaxial specimen that will distinguish between BSMs with different levels of resistance to moisture damage. An additional constraint for the simulation procedure was the allowable time and cost, i.e. the conditioning has to be accomplished within a reasonable length of time with simple, cost effective laboratory equipment. The evaluation of moisture damage in this experiment was carried out using the newly developed Moisture Induction Simulation Test (MIST) device and triaxial testing. Mix compositions of aggregate blends with and without RAP, with different bitumen binder types (foamed bitumen or bitumen emulsion) and active filler types (cement or lime) and contents, were investigated. The findings presented in this paper show that cyclic water pressure can be used to simulate accelerated moisture damage on triaxial specimen enough to distinguish between the mixture of high resistance and high susceptibility to moisture damage. Importantly, validation of MIST device using the known laboratory Model Mobile Load Simulator (MMLS3), a one-third scale accelerated pavement tester (APT) device, shows agreeable ranking of BSMs for MMLS3 and the MIST-triaxial combination, in terms of moisture resistance.
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