Laboratory evaluation of moisture sensitivity of warm mix asphalt containing steel slag

In recent years, reductions on pollutant emissions, efficiency of energy consumption, and application of novel aggregates have been the most important goals for asphalt industries. Production of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) and steel slag (SS) asphalt were some of the efforts in this way. According to the importance of moisture damage in WMA and steel slagasphalt mixtures, moisture susceptibility of the WMA mixtures containing steel slag was evaluated in this research study.Two empirical methods (Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) and Resilient Modulus Ratio (RMR)) were used to evaluate the moisture susceptibility of the mixtures. Results indicated that the application of steel slag aggregates in WMA mixturesreduced the moisture susceptibility of the mixtures. However, mixtures containing limestone aggregates showed better RMR results than mixtures containing SS. This difference in obtained results refers to the shortcomings of empirical methods for evaluation of moisture susceptibility in asphalt mixtures.

Keywords:

Steel slag , Warm mix asphalt , Sasobit , Bitumen , Mixture