‘Advanced Testing and Characterization of Bituminous Materials ~ Loizos, Partl, Scarpas & Al-adi (eds) © 2009 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-55854-9. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on the performance of asphalt mixture based permeability Junyan Yi, Decheng Feng & Dongsheng Wang Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China ABSTRACT: Raveling caused by water under freeze-thaw cycles is the main distress in highway of Chinese seasonal frozen region. Through the studies on permeability of AC-16 mixtures, the quantity of water infiltrating mixtures could be controlled. Experiments of freeze-thaw cycles based on permeability were performed to investigate the strength varia- tion of asphalt mixtures. Other parameters investigated in freeze-thaw cycles were percent air voids, relative volume, water absorptivity and height of mixtures. Results from the experi- ments indicate that the strength damage of mixture can consist of three successive phases, which can be validated from the variation of other parameters. The study can interpret the damage process under freeze-thaw cycles and have guidance effects to the construction of asphalt mixtures 1 INTRODUCTION Performance after freeze-thaw cycles is important for asphalt mixtures in seasonal frozen region. As we know, water and its change of phase state have been the main factors of influ- encing the pavement performance. The bad effects of water lie in the displacement of asphalt film (Hébeda 1998, Kettil et al. 2005) and causing structure damage through the volume expansion when temperature decreases. For the asphalt mixtures in some moisture areas, the infiltration of water is unavoidable. The main problem is the quantity. Recent study have indicated that if the asphalt mixtures had the enough voids (>9%) to accommodate the expanding of water after decrease of temperature, the frozen effects would have less influence on asphalt mixtures (Pan et al. 2003). However, the dense mixtures used in China usually have percent air voids of 3~6%, Once excess water infiltrating mixtures, they will have perform- ance degradation in a short time when temperature changes For the serious effects of freeze-thaw, there had been some studies on the impacts of it on the asphalt mixtures performance recently (Pan et al. 2003, Cao et al. 2004, How et al. 2006, Li & Li 2005). And some researches on the change of chemical composition in the asphalt- aggregate interfacial region during repeated freeze-thaw cycles had also been conducted (Huang et al, 2005). The environmental scanning electron microscope was already used to study water stripping (Williams & Miknis 1998). As to micromechanics and numerical model describing the materials behavior in freeze-thaw process, the studies nowadays mainly concern the soil (Talamucci 2003) and cement concrete (Zhou & Hirozo 2008). But for the asphalt mixtures, most of previous studies only tried to find the relationships between some mixtures macro-characteristics (strength, fatigue lifetime, etc.) and freeze-thaw cycles. How to reduce the mixtures damage afler freeze-thaw cycles remains a problem. Furthermore the change laws of volume and strength properties of mixtures in freeze-thaw cycles also do not have accepted conclusions, which need to be studied. The objective of this paper is to propose the measures of reducing the effects of freeze-thaw cycles on mixtures and demonstrate the variation laws of mixtures characteristics in freeze-thaw cycles. Because water can influence the damage extent of mixtures caused by freeze-thaw, rea- sonable measures of reducing the quantity of water in mixture should be considered firstly 205to improve the freeze-thaw durability of mixtures. Thus a laboratory permeability test has been selected to find the permeability of mixture. Then criteria of air voids based on per- meability can be proposed to control the infiltration of water. Some similar theoretical and experimental approaches on the flow of water in asphalt mixtures had been conducted in previous studies (Cooley & Ray 2001, Mallick et al. 2003, Praticé & Moro 2008). But these studies mainly concerned the field permeability of mixtures and did not combine it with the performance. Based on the proposed criteria, this paper had carried out the experiments of freeze-thaw cycles to study the variation laws of mixtures performance including indirect tensile strength, relative volume, percent air voids, water absorptivity and height of mixtures. Another type of mixtures which had bigger air voids had been used to validate the rationality of proposed ctiteria and analyze the damage phase of mixtures in freeze-thaw cycles 2 MATERIALS CHARACTERIZATION AND MIXTURES DESIGN 2.1 Materials characterization Aggregate samples were obtained from materials used in the construction of an expressway in China. All aggregates were crushed limestone. The specific gravity and absorption for the different sizes of aggregates are shown in Table 1. The used binder was penetration grade 80-100 asphalt cement. The properties of the binders are shown in Table 2. Table 1, Aggregate specific gravity and absorption, Properties Bulk specific Apparent specific_—-Pervent Aggregate size gravity gravity absorption (7) 19mm 2.649 2.697 07 16mm 2.655 2.701 06 13.2mm 2.645 2.703 08 9.5mm 2.645 2.907 09 4.15 mm 2.629 2.7L 1 2.36 mm 2.664 118mm = 2.656 = 0.6mm 2.654 0.3mm = 2.649 — 0.15 mm 2.625 0.075 mm 2.561 Filler 2.832 Table 2. Properties of binders. Test Binder properties Specification in China Penetration at 25°C/0.1 mm. 93.7 80-100 Penetration index 21 -1.5~+1.0 Softening pointi*C 45.9 >44.0 Ductility at 15°C/em, 5 cm/min >150 >100 Retained penetration after RTFOTI% 60. >s7 Retained ductility at 15°C 149 after RTFOT/em, 5 em/min 2062.2 Mixtures design ‘The mixture used in the experiments is the AC-16, whose maximum grain size is 19 mm. Mixtures design was performed according to the design procedure of Marshall Mixture Design Method. The mixtures design involves selecting a mixture gradation and optimum asphalt content, The mixed specimens were evaluated for percent ait voids, marshall stabil- ity, flow value, percent voids in mineral aggregate (VMA) and density. Finally the optimum. asphalt content could be selected based on the limits proposed by Specifications for Design of Highway Asphalt Pavement (SDHAP) in China (Yang et al. 2006) The mixture gradations used in the freeze-thaw cycles test is the medium of grada- tion range also proposed by SDHAP, which can be shown in Table 3. In experiments of permeability, to evaluate the effects of gradation variation on the permeability of mixtures in construction, three other gradations are considered (Table 3). Therefore only the opti- mum asphalt content for the medium of gradation range had been selected and the asphalt content for other gradations were same to the medium. What need to be noticed is that the S gradation in Table 3 is defined to be the mixture which has dense-framework structure. For the bad moisture resistance of mixtures in practical test, hydrated lime had been added to all mixtures. The content of hydrated lime is 40% weight of filler. Finally, the optimum asphalt content for the medium could be selected at 5.2% by total weight of the mixtures. In the permeability experiments, the different percent air voids for every type of mixtures was controlled by different blows on each side using the Marshall hammer. And the specimens used in experiments of freeze-thaw cycles were prepared using a gyratory compactor, 3 Laboratory permeability experiment 3.1 Laboratory permeability device The permeability device in the laboratory can be used to test the permeability of cylindrical specimens (101.6 mm diameter by 63.5 mm high) (Figure 1). 3.2. Results and discussion Figure 2 is the plot of permeability for the four types of mixtures. It can be seen that the gra- dations have important influences on the permeability of mixture. The coarse mixture would ‘be more permeable than other mixtures at the same percent air voids, Table 3, Mixture gradations selected, Percent passing Sieve size Gradation range (mm) in SDHAP. Coarse Medium = Fine = S 19 100 98 100 100100 16 90-100 93 95 95 95 13.2 16-92 81 84 88 88 95 60-80 6 0 B 8 475 34-62 40 48 35 55 236 20-48 30 34 40 30 118 13-36 2 25 28 20 06 926 16 18 20 15 03 718 12 13 15 ul ous sa 8 10 10 8 0.075 48 4 6 6 6 207Figure 1, Laboratory permeability device. Medium € 1000.0 y= 9.171507" Fine Zz 8000 RE= 05668 ‘ a Seon B 4000 Eee . = 0.0 Percent air voids (%) Percent air voids (%) Figure 2. Plot of permeability versus air voids — Figure 3. Plot of permeability versus air voids four types of mixtures. all mixtures. Integrate the all data of permeability in Figure 3. Nowadays the permeability criterion in China for all dense mixture is 120 ml/min. To control the infiltration of water more strictly, this paper propose the criteria of 100 ml/min. Through the plot of permeability versus air voids, the critical percent air voids versus permeability criteria can be got. Figure 3 shows the results that the 6.3% percent air voids can assure the less infiltration of water into mixtures. Finally to simplify the control criteria, the critical percent air voids was determined as 6% for AC-16 mixtures. Through the control of air voids, the quantity of water infiltrating mixtures can be cut down, consequently there should be less damage caused by water under freeze- thaw cycles. To validate the rationality of critical percent air voids proposed, the experiments of freeze- thaw cycles would be carried out for mixtures which have the critical and bigger percent air voids. 4 EXPERIMENT OF FREEZE-THAW CYCLES The experimental mixture used in freeze-thaw cycles is the medium gradation mixture of AC-16, All specimens (including 100 mm diameter by 63.5 mm high and 100 mm diameter by 100 mm high), whose air voids was controlled to be approximately 6+ 1%, were molded using gyratory compacter by diminishing the rotation amount. In order to contrast the effects of ctitical air voids, specimens with approximately 8 + 1% air voids (only 63.5 mm high) were prepared to carry on the experiments of freeze-thaw cycles. 208For each of the mixtures, freeze-thaw cycles up to 25 cycles were conducted. Each cycle consisted of freezing for 9 h at -18°C (-0.4°F) followed by soaking for 3 h at 25°C (77°F) (¥i 2006). Several parameters including indirect tensile strength (ITS) at 25°C, tensile strength ratio (TSR), percent air voids (PAV), relative volumes, water absorptivity (WA) and height (only for mixtures with critical air voids) were determined at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 cycles And all specimens were water conditioned by vacuum saturation for 15 min with distilled water before experiments of freeze-thaw cycles. There were totally 18 specimens (3 duplicates x 6) with 63.5 mm high and 3 specimens with 100 mm high for mixtures with critical percent air voids and 18 specimens with 63.5 mm high for mixtures with 8 + 1'% air voids. In the experiments for mixtures with critical per- cent ait voids, the specimens with 63.5 mm high were used to determine the indirect tensile strength at 25°C and tensile strength ratio; comparably specimens with 100 mm high, which did not destroy in cycles, could determine the variation laws of other parameters for these mixtures had the same gradation and structure. Using the same specimens can diminish the effects caused by individual difference and reflect the real variation for mixtures in freeze- thaw cycles. For the mixtures with 8 + 1% air voids, the strength variation was the primary research object. Thus the volume properties of mixtures in the cycles of freeze-thaw were directly tested through the specimens with 63.5 mm high before strength test. And the varia- tion laws in the cycles were only the rough trend. 4.1 Mixtures with critical percent air voids 41.1 Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on strength Figure 4 shows the variation of indirect tensile strength and tensile strength ratio for mix- tures with critical percent air voids by repeated freeze-thaw cycles. The values in the plot are the average of three duplicates. Generally, the decrease of ITS can be divided into two phase along with the cycles increase: decreased rapidly in 0-15 cycles and slowly in last cycles In fact, the damage in the first 15 cycles was mainly caused by the expansion of water in the mixtures under the change of temperature, which could be supported through the vari- ation of water absorptivity. Figure 5 shows that the water absorptivity of three specimens with 100 mm high which are listed as 1 to 3 has changed rapidly from 0 to 15 cycles, and gradually stay in steady state in the last cycles. Because the inner structure and materials are similar, the variation of mixture characteristics for the two mixtures with different height can be interchangeable, The water absorptivity is defined as the percentage of water volume the mixtures absorbed accounting for total volume of mixtures, actually representing the quanti- ties of connected voids in the mixtures. Therefore the performance variation of mixtures can be analyzed according to the Figure 4 and Figure 5. In the beginning of freeze-thaw cycles, the volume of water saturating in the mixtures had increased when placing into the circumstance of -18°C, which brought the extending of connected voids in the asphalt mixture, Subsequently there would appear more macroscopic 100.0 6.0 ais # TSR } wo S : woe $7? So 3 ran = E50 902 320 oe 60.0 210 ea) 82 3 . S 09 soo 00 oO 5 10 15) 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25 Number of reee-thaw cycles Naber of fesztthaw eyes Figure 4, Impact of freeze-thaw eycles on TTS Figure 5. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on water and TSR, absorptivity mixtures with 100 mm height 209cracks for mixtures, and make more water infiltrating mixtures at next freeze-thaw cycle Consequently the water absorptivity and connected voids all had a continuing increase Because the added connected voids were mostly the macroscopic cracks which would be the weak parts of mixtures structure for the stress concentration beside the cracks, the ITS and TSR had decreased sharply. This can be defined as the macroscopic effects of freeze-thaw cycles on the strength of asphalt mixtures. When the connected voids were increased to certain extent, parts of water could flow freely out of mixtures along with the large connected voids under the effects of temperature gradient. Therefore the damage caused by expansion of water could be reduced. The data in Figure 4 clearly demonstrate the assumption, From the previous experience we can suppose that the state is only temporary, and there will be a new damage phase in some periods in which damage characteristic is the absorption loss of asphalt-aggregate interface. To validate the hypothesis and rationality of critical percent air voids, mixtures with larger air voids will be conducted to experiments of freeze-thaw cycles. 4.1.2 Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on volume properties ‘The volume properties including percent air voids, relative volumes and height of asphalt mixtures with 100 mm high in cycles of freeze-thaw were also determined (Figs 6, 7 and 8). ‘The relative volume in Figure 7 is the difference between the mass of the specimen in satu- rated surface-dry condition and the mass of the specimen submerged in water. The variation of volume properties indicates that the percent air voids and relative volume have nearly a continual linear increase in the freeze-thaw cycles, which have important influ- ence on the performance of mixtures. In fact, there are also complex relationships between 80 700 = * 8 38 z . eo 3 E15 ° £ 165.0 ‘ o 3 . o 210 * 3 a 8 8 a 3 : 5 1600 go4 65 4 g 3 2 Boot e102 a3] © 75503 e102 a3 3s 7500 os Sm 2 os 0 Ss mw 2s Number of freeze-thaw cycles Number of freeze-thaw eyeles Figure 6. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on Figure 7. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on rela- PAV mixtures with 100 mm height tive volume—mixtures with 100 mm height. 101.0 a ose , 8 4 & 0 4 4 E a . = 100.0 . . Boe ° ° =z 995 el a2 a3 99.0 o 5 wo 1 ww 2 ‘Number of freeze-thaw cycles Figure 8, Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on height mixtures with 100 mm height. 210the percent air voids and relative volume. The expansion of relative volume mainly caused by frozen water would result in the appearance of inner cracks. This is probably the reason of increasing for percent air voids. And similarly the increase of percent air voids may cause to the expansion of relative volume. Figure 8 demonstrates that there is little variation for height in cycles of freeze-thaw, and the biggest variation of which is only approximately 0.5 mm. This small change contributes alittle to the variation of relative volume. Therefore the expansion along the radial direction should be the main reason to volume variation. This can be explained by the material char- acteristic of asphalt mixtures. As a typical viscoelastic material, the asphalt mixtures have a self-healing performance, After the expansion of volume, the height variation along with the vertical direction could recover gradually for the effects of gravity. Contrarily, the expansion along the radial direction is not easy to recover. 4.1.3 Swnmary The experimental results above for mixtures with critical air voids mainly indicate the performance variation of asphalt mixtures in cycles of freeze-thaw. On the whole, the decrease of ITS and TSR can be divided into two phase: phase of reducing sharply and of keeping steady, To validate the rationality of critical air voids and the hypothesis that there will be a new reducing phase in some periods, the experiments of freeze-thaw cycles for asphalt mixtures with 8 + 1% air voids were conducted. 4.2 — Mixtures with bigger percent air voids In this test, parameters including ITS and TSR were mainly determined for specimens at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cycles. Before the test of indirect tensile strength, other indexes such as water absorptivity, relative volume and percent air voids were obtained for the mixtures with 63.5 mm high which would be destroyed. And the line in Figures was the average value of three specimens. Thus the variations of these parameters were only the total tendency for mixtures. 4.2.1 Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on strength Figure 9 indicates that the indirect tensile strength of mixtures with 8 + 1% air voids are obviously smaller comparing with mixtures with critical air voids at every five cycles And the decrease extent of TSR is similar to mixtures with critical air voids in the 0-20 cycles. At the last five cycles, the mixtures with 8 + 1% air voids have showed the different performance. Like the mixtures with critical air voids, the specimens with bigger air voids also have a steady phase of strength from 15 to 20 cycles. However, there appears obvious decrease after 20 cycles for the relatively worse structure defects, This can be demonstrated by the reducing of TSR. Figure 9 shows that there are obviously stepwise decrease for TSR and ITS. And it was found that the mixtures had surface loosening in the last cycles, Thus the test results +, vo = 80 eto g : : mi gn A rs wore. o. cook 3 554 . [900 S10 Figure 9. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on ITS Figure 10. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on water and TSR. absorptivity mixtures with 63.5 mm height, audemonstrate the hypotheses on the damage process of asphalt mixtures in freeze-thaw cycles, which are that the damage process consists of three phases: (1) the phase of connected voids extending and macroscopical cracks increasing caused by frozen water, (2) the phase of per- formance stabilizes; (3) the phase of the absorption of asphalt-aggregate interface losing, Comparing the Figure 9 with Figure 4, the TSR in the second phase of damage is similar, which is 50-60%, This shows that the difference of structure has less impact on the TSR but important on the ITS for the initial cycles. Thus the value of ITS is also very important index besides the TSR for evaluating the performance of asphalt mixtures in cycles of freeze-thaw. Figure 10 indicates the variation of water absorptivity in freeze-thaw cycles for mixtures with 8 + 1% air voids, which also demonstrates the change laws of strength for mixtures as mentioned before. At the third phase of damage, because the damage of mixtures was the absorption losing of asphalt-aggregate interface, the water absorptivity did not changed rapidly. 4.2.2 Effects of freeze-thaw cycles on volume properties Figure 1] and Figure 12 show that the percent air voids and relative volume are continually increasing in the initial 15 cycles and staying at a steady state gradually in the remaining cycles. This is probably because that the air voids were big enough for the free flow of water after 15 cycles and there should be not obvious change for these indexes anymore. 4.2.3 Summary From the test results of mixtures with 8 + 1% air voids, the rationality of critical air voids can be validated. Mixtures having bigger air voids have a worse performance in cycles of freeze thaw. And the strength of mixtures will dectease more rapidly than specimens with critical air voids. 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMM! ENDATIONS. ‘The study in this paper has proposed the measures of decreasing the damage and provided new information regarding damage phase of asphalt mixtures under freeze-thaw cycles Specifically, the following conclusions are proposed. 1. Controlling of percent air voids can have the advantages of improving the performance of asphalt mixtures under freeze-thaw cycles. 2. The strength damage of mixtures under freeze-thaw cycles can be divided into three phase Firstly, the volume of water in the connected air voids are expanded when the tempera- ture decrease, which result in the increase of connected air voids. Then the structures of mixtures are destroyed and the strength reduces to 50-60% of initial mixtures rapidly. Sec- ondly, when the connected air voids are big enough for the free flow of water in mixtures and simultaneously the asphalt have not been displaced by water at asphalt-aggregate no s0s.0 a =~ “ yz 500.0 Zuo 1 a % two 4950 3 3 490.0 3 9.0 ‘4 = 5 485.0 z 2 g 80 480.0 10 4750 6 5 wm 1 m 2 0 5 wm 1% 25 Number of freeze-thaw eyeles Number of freeze-thaw cycles Figure 11. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on Figure 12. Impact of freeze-thaw cycles on PAV mixtures with 63.5 mm height relative volume—mixtures with 63.5 mm height. 212interface, the performance of mixtures will keep steady. And the periods of steady state are different for mixtures with different material characteristics. Lastly, the water infil- trates the asphalt-aggregate interface, which results in the absorption losing of asphalt- aggregate interface. Therefore the strength of asphalt mixtures under cycles of freeze-thaw has reduced rapidly again. 3. The percent air voids, relative volume and water absorptivity of mixtures have increased gradually at the first and second damage phases under freeze-thaw cycles, and stayed steadily after that ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are grateful to the reviewers for their comments and advices on this paper. And the financial support by Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China is gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES Cao Xiao-yan, Chen Yong-xing & Bao Futang, 2004, Research of freeze-resistance performance of asphalt mixtures. Jownal of Heilongjiang institute of technology 18(2):36-38. Cooley, Allen L. & Ray Brown, E. 2001. 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