Rutting performance of road pavement asphalt binders modified by polymers

Abstract

The aim of the work reported in this paper was to investigate the effect of three well-known polymers at their two common dosages on the rutting performance of asphalt binders for road pavements. After performing conventional binder tests, dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) and multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR) tests were performed to assess the high-temperature permanent deformation of modified binders. The response surface methodology was applied to study the effect of polymer additives, temperature and stress level on creep recovery. It was found that the recovery was affected linearly by styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) content, while it was influenced linearly and non-linearly by ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) content. The polymers were found to be effective in improving rutting resistance but the rankings of the rheometer and creep recovery tests were different. The binders modified with SBS were the most rut resistant in both tests. As the test involved traffic conditions in addition to temperature, EVA was second in the DSR test while SBR was second in the MSCR test.