Exploring the Influence of Aging Conditions on Fiber-Reinforced Porous Asphalt Mastic

Abstract

Road construction is increasingly using reinforcement additives to improve its durability and performance to ultimately achieve a sustainable infrastructure. Fiber reinforced mixtures have been a promising strategy for enhancing asphalt road performance in recent years, this is especially true for novel road structures like porous asphalt (PA). This study’s overarching objective is to experimentally investigate, at low and intermediate temperatures, how fiber reinforcement and aging conditions interact to influence the mechanical properties of porous asphalt at the asphalt mastic phase. First, a porous asphalt, PA 8, was selected as the reference mixture based on an active German standard. Afterward, asphalt mastic was prepared without and with fibers and then aged to different conditions. Two different types of asphalt binders, and two commercially available fibers, aramid and polyacrylonitrile, were used to achieve this goal. Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) and Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) were conducted to evaluate the fatigue and thermal properties. The results indicate that the fatigue and low temperature properties of asphalt mastics are unaffected by the addition of fiber, while the aging condition brings more remarkable influence.