Experimental Study on Shear Fatigue Behavior and Stiffness Performance of Warm Mix Asphalt by adding Synthetic Wax

TL;DR

This study compares the shear fatigue behavior and stiffness of Warm Mix Asphalt with synthetic wax to traditional Hot Mix Asphalt, showing that synthetic wax addition does not impair performance and offers environmental benefits.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence that synthetic wax in WMA maintains mechanical performance comparable to HMA, supporting its use for sustainable pavement construction.

Findings

Synthetic wax does not reduce shear fatigue life.

Stiffness properties are maintained with wax addition.

WMA with synthetic wax offers environmental advantages.

Abstract

Synthetic waxes produced by standard and registered processes may be used to manufacture Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA), which is a modified asphalt concrete produced, applied and compacted at temperatures below those typically required. This feature leads to environmental benefits, such as reduced energy consumption, gas and fume emissions, as well as to economic/operational advantages, such as lower production costs and greater hauling distances for extended construction seasons with tighter schedules. The present article serves to compare the mechanical performance of a WMA produced by adding synthetic wax with a traditional Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) specimen, in terms of shear fatigue response and both complex and stiffness moduli. The experimental results and related modeling work demonstrate that adding synthetic wax into the WMA composition does not hinder either the destructive or non-destructive performance of an HMA, and this finding is corroborated by respectively measuring fatigue life and stiffness.