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" A maturity function was developed for conditioning effects on cold-mix materials.
" A correlation between maturity and stiffness was identied.
" Method was applied to assess climatic effects on cold-mix pavements in service.
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 15 May 2012
Received in revised form 9 August 2012
Accepted 20 September 2012
Available online 12 October 2012
Keywords:
Asphalt materials
Cold-mix
Emulsion
Maturity methods
Curing
Conditioning
Stiffness modulus
a b s t r a c t
Cold-mix bituminous materials offer a sustainable, cost effective alternative to traditional hot-mixes. Difculties however can be encountered when specifying cold-mix materials due to the strong inuence of
time and temperature on material performance. In the eld of concrete technology maturity methods are
routinely used for assessing materials of known curing history. This research presents the development of
a maturity approach for the assessment of cold-mix bituminous materials and its application for predicting the effect of climatic variations on in situ mixture performance. A strong correlation was observed
between the calculated maturity and the measured stiffness for a range of conditioning temperatures
and durations thus enabling the prediction of long and short-term material performance in situ where
ambient conditions are known.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Cold-mix pavement materials are dened as bituminous materials mixed using cold aggregates and binder [1]. By eliminating
the need to heat the large volumes of aggregate substantial savings, both nancial and environmental, can be achieved in comparison with traditional hot-mix materials. Furthermore, because the
compactability of the material is not related to the mix temperature, cold-mixtures are portable and are therefore ideally suited
for use in the construction and maintenance of rural roads as they
remove the need for portable hot-mix asphalt plants [2].
Despite the potential environmental and cost benets associated with cold-mixes, there are a number of factors hindering their
wider use. These include an inconsistent approach internationally
to specifying this material and an incomplete understanding of
the strength development of cold-mixes when in service. Foremost
however is the lack of suitable assessment criteria for cold-mixes.
Corresponding author. Address: UCD School of Civil, Structural & Environmental
Engineering, University College Dublin, Newstead, Beleld, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel.:
+353 1 716 3202; fax: +353 1 716 3297.
E-mail address: ciaran.mcnally@ucd.ie (C. McNally).
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.09.008
2. Conditioning regimes
Accelerated curing is required for cold-mix materials prior to
laboratory testing due to its low initial strength to simulate the
medium to long-term performance of the material in situ [1]. The
long-term stiffness of the material will not be achieved until a substantial reduction of the moisture content has occurred. The principal difculty involved in the testing of cold-mixes is combining a
test of short duration with the requirement to simulate the
working environment of the material. Leech [5] reported that the
525
Kekwick [7]
Bowering [4]
Bowering and Martin [10]
Acott (1980); cited Jenkins [1]
Muthen [6]
Maccarrone [11]
Ramanujam and Jones [12]
Sabita [13]
Kishore Kumar et al. [14]
Yan et al. [15]
NRA [17]
Thanaya et al. [2]
OPrey [8]
Ruckel et al. [9]
Jenkins [1]
Asphalt Academy (2002); cited [7]
Kim and Lee [16]
Sabita [13]
Ruckel et al. [9]
Asphalt Institute; cited Ruckel et al. [9]
Brown and Needham [19]
NRA [17]
Sabita [13]
Sabita [13]
Ruckel et al. [9]
In situ equivalent
T (C)
t (days)
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
60
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
38
20
20
Ambient
Ambient
Ambient
1,3,7
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
28
1821
7
3
3
3
3
2
1
1
100 + 1 @60 C
28
28
7
1
28 days
1 year
30 days
6 months
714 days
1 week
1 year
1 month
1 day
F, E
F
F
F
F
F, E
F
E
E
F, E
F, E
E
F
F
F, E
F
F
F
F
E
E
F, E
F
F
F
526
20C
40C
60C
R = 0.999
4
R = 0.987
3
R = 0.994
2
1
0
t
X
T T 0 Dt
where M is the maturity index, C h (C days); T is the average concrete temperature (C) during the time interval Dt; T0 is the datum
temperature (usually taken to be 10 C [6]), t is the elapsed time
and Dt is the time interval (hours or days).
In 1954 Rastrup (cited [24]) introduced the equivalent time as
an alternative method dened as the time required at the reference
temperature to achieve the same maturity as the actual cured
material. Neville [23] maintains that despite the development of
increasingly complex maturity methods, the original maturity
function remains a useful tool in practice.
3. Experimental testing
For the purpose of this study a cold-mix emulsion mixture was produced using
a limestone aggregate, a moisture content of 4% and a binder content of 3.3%. The
binder used was a cationic emulsion containing 64% bitumen. The aggregate used
was selected to conform with the clause 800 series of unbound materials for road
pavements [25]. This mix design was based on previous work conducted by Doyle
et al. [18] which found the mix to produce a compacted density of 2172 kg/m3 and a
compactability of 84.8%. Three sets of eight 150 mm diameter specimens were produced by gyratory compaction. Mechanical performance was assessed using the
ITSM test in accordance with IS EN 12697-26 [26] using a test temperature of
20 C. Specimens were conditioned in a thermostatically controlled air chamber
with uncontrolled humidity at temperatures of 20 C, 40 C, and 60 C. Repeated
testing of the specimens was carried out after intervals of accelerated curing of
increasing duration.
Three phases of accelerated conditioning were used to investigate the strength
development of the material. The initial period of conditioning was of 12 and
15 months duration for the specimens conditioned at 40 C and 20 C respectively.
The second phase of conditioning was at ambient room temperature of approximately 18 C for a period of 6 months. Finally the specimens were subjected to a
conditioning temperature of 60 C. The set of specimens initially conditioned at
60 C was not suitable for further testing due to the elevated stiffness already
achieved and the likelihood that further conditioning at a reduced temperature
would have little or no effect on the specimens.
50
100
150
200
527
where te is the equivalent age (days) and other symbols are as described earlier. The introduction of the equivalent age term to the
maturity function signicantly improves the sensitivity to temperature uctuations. The equivalent age, dened in Eq. (3), is based
on time at a reference temperature and is used to translate the
maturity acquired for any given time and temperature combination.
BTT r
te t e
where te is the equivalent age (days); Tr is the reference temperature (20 C) and B is a material dependent temperature sensitivity
parameter. This was determined by performing a regression analysis of the expected logarithmic relation between stiffness and maturity index. For this particular mix, B was found to take a value of
0.08. The equivalent age was determined using the method described by Carino and Lew [21] for determining a maturity index
for concrete materials. It can be seen that the equivalent age will
be less than the real time for conditioning periods at temperatures
below the reference temperature, and vice versa.
The correlation between maturity calculated using Eq. (2) and
the stiffness of the material tested in the laboratory is illustrated
in Fig. 2. There is clearly a strong correlation between the two,
but with the advantage that the maturity function can allow for
temperature uctuations.
4.3. Testing the maturity hypothesis
The second and third phases of laboratory conditioning were
used to assess the suitability of the maturity function presented
in Eq. (2) to describe the effect of varying conditioning temperatures. Samples were initially conditioned at 20 C and 40 C before
being moved to an environment at 60 C. The samples were tested
periodically using the ITSM and the results are illustrated in Fig. 3.
These are accompanied by predicted values for the stiffness modulus that are calculated using the correlation identied in Fig. 2.
As expected, the results clearly illustrate an increase in the rate
of stiffness gain when the conditioning temperature is increased
to 60 C. The correlation between the test data and the predicted
values suggest that the maturity approach provides a good basis
for determining the stiffness of the material. While there is some
underestimation of stiffness acquired when the temperature is increased to 60 C, this would also be in agreement with concerns
raised [6,19] over the use of specimen conditioning at 60 C due
to the proximity to the softening point of the binder, the loss of
volatile components and the oxidation of the binder. Consequently
4
y = 0.1812x0.294
R = 0.97
3
0
1
10
100
1000
10000
Maturity (C.day)
Fig. 2. Relationship between maturity and stiffness.
100000
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
200
400
600
800
Time (days)
Fig. 3. Inuence of temperature change on stiffness experimental and calculated.
528
2.5
1.0
0.8
2009
1999
1990
0.6
0.4
0.2
1.2
Dublin
London
Pretoria
Melbourne
San Francisco
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
1
10
100
1000
Time (days)
0.0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul
8000
Maturity (C.day)
Dublin
Pretoria
San Francisco
Asphalt Academy [7]
Maccarone [11]
NRA [17]
6000
London
Melbourne
Ruckel et al [9]
Acott [1]
Brown & Needham [19]
Asphalt Institute [9]
4000
2000
0
0
100
200
300
400
Time (days)
Table 2
Summary of cold-mix research locations.
Source
Location
Maccarone [11]
Acott (1980); cited Jenkins [1]
Brown and Needham [19]
Asphalt Academy (2002); cited Kekwick [7]
Ruckel et al. [9]
Asphalt Institute; cited Ruckel et al. [9]
Australia
South Africa
United Kingdom
South Africa
USA
USA
development in cold-mix materials. The introduction of an equivalent time function has resulted in a strong correlation between
maturity and stiffness of laboratory-tested specimens for time
intervals with differing conditioning temperatures.
The application of the maturity method to the assessment of
cold-mix pavements in service identied the signicant impact of
ambient conditions. This also allowed for this impact to be quantied, offering a more scientic basis for engineers to decide on the
use of cold-mix materials.
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
Acknowledgements
[16]
[17]
[18]
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