ISSUES IN MIX DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF HOT MIX ASPHALT FOR AIRFIELDS

The quality of hot mix asphalt (HMA) is significantly affected by the qualifications of personnel and the condition of equipment used for mix design, construction, and quality control/quality assurance testing. This paper discusses some of the issues involving materials, mix design, and construction that have resulted in performance problems in the past. The paper includes some of the new test methods being used to improve the evaluation of the mix being produced as well as some of the construction methods that have been adopted to solve some of the construction related problems. Some of the most common performance problems that have been observed on airfields include rutting, raveling, cracking due to aging of the HMA, and cracking of longitudinal joints. The primary causes of these problems are poorly constructed longitudinal joints, segregation, low in-place density, or overall lack of quality control/quality assurance. Using good construction methods and good testing techniques during quality control/quality assurance can minimize each of these performance problems. Several improvements have been made in materials and mix design for hot mix asphalt. The Superpave system is an improvement over the Marshall method but it was developed for highways and should not be adopted for airfields without some modifications. Some airfield projects have used the Superpave procedures for mix design but more specific guidance for airfield pavements is needed before this new mix design system is widely used. This report addresses some of the issues facing the specifying agency when considering the use of Superpave for Airfields. Mix types such as stone matrix asphalt (SMA) and open graded friction courses (OGFC) have been used on some airfield pavements but these mix types can be more widely used. SMA, which has not been used at all in the US on airfields, can be used to provide longer lasting mixes. Developments with polymer modified asphalts and fibers have improved the quality of OGFCs. There are many new construction related techniques being adopted to improve the overall quality of hot mix asphalt. Some of these new techniques will be addressed in this report. Some of the techniques addressed include: use of material transfer vehicle for placement of HMA, use of vacuum sealing procedures for measuring bulk density, use of cutting wheel in constructing longitudinal joints, and comparison of cores and nuclear gauges for measuring density. Other issues that will be addressed will be the status of performance testing and quality control/quality assurance charts.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  World Road Association (PIARC)

  La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord, Niveau 5
  F-92055 La Defense Cedex,   France 
• Authors:
  • Brown, E R
  • Greene, J
• Conference:
  • The XXIInd PIARC World Road Congress
  • Location: Durban, South Africa
  • Date: 2003-10-19 to 2003-10-25
• Publication Date: 2003

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 10p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aggregate segregation; Airport runways; Airports; Asphalt pavements; Construction; Friction course; Highways; Hot mix asphalt; In place density; Longitudinal joints; Mix design; Open graded aggregates; Quality assurance; Quality control; Rutting; Stone matrix asphalt; Superpave
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Construction; Design; Highways; Pavements; Terminals and Facilities; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00987847
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 3 2005 12:00AM