Failure Performance of Synthetic Fibre-Reinforced Warm-Mix Asphalt

Master Thesis (2018)
Author(s)

Gerald Christian Gerald Daniel (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)

Contributor(s)

Sandra M.J.G. Erkens – Coach

Xueyan Liu – Mentor

P. Apostolidis – Graduation committee member

L.J.M. Houben – Coach

Yuguang Yang – Coach

Ronald Diele – Coach

Henk Hilverink – Coach

Mahesh Moenielal – Coach

Faculty
Civil Engineering & Geosciences
Copyright
© 2018 Gerald Christian Gerald Daniel
More Info
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Publication Year
2018
Language
English
Copyright
© 2018 Gerald Christian Gerald Daniel
Graduation Date
19-10-2018
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Programme
['Civil Engineering | Structural Engineering']
Faculty
Civil Engineering & Geosciences
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Abstract

The use of synthetic fibres has been reported to enhance the performance of asphalt pavement materials in terms of permanent deformation, fatigue and thermal cracking. However, limited results about the benefits of synthetic fibres in the reinforced warm-mix asphaltic materials, and the exact mechanism of reinforcing the binding part in pavement structures is still unclear. This research aims firstly to examine the material at the warm mixed mortar level using a combination of two synthetic fibres (aramid and polyolefin) to conclude its fracture performance. Several laboratory tests were performed using specially designed experimental tools. Samples of three different fibre contents (0.05%, 0.1% and 0.5% of specimen weight) and two fibre lengths (19 and 38mm) were evaluated. In particular, pull-out tests, whose objective was to explore the interaction of fibre-matrix demonstrated a matrix-type of fracture; meaning that the adhesion of fibre-matrix is higher than the strength of the matrix itself, which implies a benefit of adding fibre to a mixture at high service temperature.
Summary
Moreover, direct tension tests were carried out with both monotonic and cyclic loading to measure the effect of the synthetic fibres on tensile strength, fracture energy and fatigue life of reinforced warm mixes under monotonic and cyclic tension load, respectively. These tension experiments concluded improvements on mechanical characteristics of warm mixed asphalt mortars when fibres were added, mainly applying higher dosages than the recommended by the fibres supplier. Overall, the current results elucidated that implementing dedicated material studies at micro-scales can assist on understanding the material performance and tailoring systems beyond sometimes recommended reinforcement dosages by the suppliers. Finally, a semi-circular bending test was performed as the largest scale of this research using various fibre amount composition as well as fibre length inside the bituminous mix, and the final results mainly correspond with the other examinations that have also been conducted. Therefore, the research methodology utilised in this thesis has been able to examine the reinforcement effect brought by the integration of synthetic fibre to failure performance of the warm mixed asphaltic mixture specifically regarding the cracking resistance extensively.

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