Abstract
In recent years, nanotechnology has sparked an interest in nanomodification of bituminous materials to increase the viscosity of asphalt binders and improves the rutting and fatigue resistance of asphalt mixtures. This paper presents the experimental results of laboratory tests on bituminous mixtures laid on a 1052 m-long test section built in Rome, Italy. Four asphalt mixtures for wearing and binder layer were considered: two polymer modified asphalt concretes (the former modified with the additive Superplast and the latter modified with styrene–butadiene–styrene), a “hard” graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) modified asphalt concrete and a not-modified mixture. The indirect tensile strength, water sensitivity, stiffness modulus, and fatigue resistance of the mixtures were tested and compared. A statistical analysis based on the results has shown that the mixtures with GNPs have higher mechanical performances than the others: GNP could significantly improve the tested mechanical performances; further studies will be carried out to investigate its effect on rutting and skid resistance.
Highlights
Road pavement distresses depend on fatigue cracking and rutting damages: in flexible pavements both affect the bonded layers [1]
A wider range was obtained for binder mixes, it should be noted that the modified mixes (i.e., B1 to B3) showed very close air voids, whereas the not-modified binder mix (i.e., B4) voids content was quite higher than modified ones probably due to the lower content of bitumen
Nanotechnology has been explored in a wide range of disciplines with the “bottom-up” engineering approach; nanomodification technology aims to influence the mass properties of materials leading to new applications or enhanced utilities using chemical or physical properties operating at the nanoscale
Summary
Road pavement distresses depend on fatigue cracking and rutting damages: in flexible pavements both affect the bonded layers [1] Their effects lead to a decrease in safety, durability, and efficiency of the infrastructure that have an impact on users and road agencies in terms of economic costs. Road infrastructure entails environmental impacts, in terms of abiotic resource depletion and emissions caused by roadworks [2,3,4]. For these reasons, in recent decades research has focused on chemical products able to increase durability and improve mechanical properties of pavements.
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