Evaluation of rheological master curves of asphalt mastics and asphalt-filler interaction indices

Abstract

Understanding the rheological behavior of the asphalt mastic is an important step towards improving the shear-stress response of the mixture. The objective of this study is to observe the rheological master curves and the asphalt-filler interaction of the asphalt mastics in the linear viscoelastic (LVE) range by using various rheological indices. The frequency sweep (FS) test was utilized to investigate the influence factors of the rheological indexes and the applicability of the asphalt-filler interaction indexes. Simultaneously, the correlation of various asphalt-filler interaction indices was established. The results showed that the influence of filler volume fraction and the aging effect exhibited a stonger significant effect on the rheological indices were significantly stronger than that of the binder type and filler type. The aging effect could reduce the difference in the rheological indices between various mastics. The analysis of the asphalt-filler interaction indices showed that the addition of the modifier had a negtive effect on the critical filler volume fraction (Φm) of the mastic. Moreover, the indices of the complex modulus coefficient (△G*), K.D.Ziegel-B-G* (K-B-G*) and complex viscosity coefficient (△η*) presented the consistency in evaluating the asphalt-filler interaction ability. The value of K-B-G* increased with the aging degree, that is, the filler-asphalt interaction increased with aging degree