Principal Investigator(s):
Mihai Marasteanu, Professor, Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering
Co-Investigators:
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Mugurel Turos, Junior Scientist, Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering
Project summary:
Low temperature cracking is the number one distress in asphalt pavements in Minnesota. As temperature decreases, thermal tensile stresses accumulate in the pavement that is restrained and eventually a crack or multiple cracks form. A "simple" solution to this problem is to use a very soft binder (e.g. PG-40 or less) that does not accumulate high stresses and does not crack. However, these binders will generate large permanent deformations (rutting) at high temperatures, and therefore cannot be used for real pavement applications. This proposal investigates the possibility of stiffening these binders at high temperatures using ultra-fine particles (similar to silica fume), while maintaining their moderate stiffness at low temperatures.