Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

What is Warm Mix Asphalt -WMA

Warm-mix asphalt (WMA) is a group of technologies that allow a reduction in the temperatures at
which asphalt mixes are produced and placed. These technologies tend to reduce the viscosity of the
asphalt and provide for the complete coating of aggregates at lower temperatures.
The benefits of WMA technologies include;
Reduced fuel usage,
Emissions in support of sustainable development,
Improved field compaction,
which can facilitate longer haul distances,
Cool weather pavement, and
Better working conditions.
1- Background History of Warm Mix Asphalt Development
From historical point of view, the concept of using lower production and compaction temperature is
not completely new. The earliest work started by professor Ladis Csanyi in 1956 at Iowa State
University when the potential of foamed bitumen was investigated for use as a soil binder. From that
time, successful foamed asphalt technologies are carried out in many countries (Chowdhury &
Button 2008). However, despite the fact that the concept of introducing steam into hot bitumen was
successful, the work was impractical for in situ foaming operations. It is therefore that, in 1968,
Mobile Oil Australia had obtained the patent rights for Csanyis invention and made modification to
the original process by supplying cold water instead of steam in to the hot bitumen(Kristjansdottir
2006; Muthen 1998).
Further advancement in this technology was introduced to the market in the USA as the Conoco
product that was evaluated as a base stabilizer both in the field and the laboratory(Chowdhury &
Button 2008; Little, Button & Epps 1983). Back to the early 1970s, new methodologies of pavement
mixtures stabilized with emulsified asphalt was successfully developed by Chevron who published
Bitumuls Mix Manual as a practical guideline in 1977(Chowdhury & Button 2008; Zettler 2006)
In terms of producing mixture in an ambient temperature, Maccarone et al in 1994 investigated and
studied Cold-mixed asphalt-based foamed, which is produced approximately at 68 to 120, and
highlighted that due to lower emissions and energy efficiency of such use of this system, Cold mix
was broadly gaining acceptance(HoUeran & MaCCarrone 1994). Indeed, it was stated that Cold
technologies represent the future in road surfacing (Chowdhury & Button 2008). However, despite
the fact that Cold mixes have many good properties, it is not affected to the position of hot mix
therefore, CAM would not apparently be able replace hot asphalt mixture as the primary road
surfacing materials because of the requirement of curing time and long period to open to traffic and
also inadequate achievement of the same overall long term performance in comparison with HMA,
(Gandhi 2008). But rising fuel prices, global warming and more stringent environmental regulations
have resulted more demand to reduce production and compaction temperature. It is therefore
required at least to heat the aggregate above the ambient temperature so that appropriate coatings
happen between the aggregate and binder. From this idea, in 1999, Jenkins et al introduced a new
concept of half-warm foamed bitumen treatment which can enhance mix cohesion, tensile strength
and compaction (Jenkins et al. 1999).
A warm asphalt mixture process has been recently developed in Europe. Between 1996 and 1999,
several road trials in Europe were conducted to study and demonstrate the warm mixture
performance in the field with three major asphalt companies in Norway, the UK and the Netherlands
and were firstly reported by Harrison and Christodulaki at the First International Conference of
Asphalt Pavement in Sydney, 2000. And then after a more comprehensive and complete report was
introduced by Koenders et al. at the Eurobitume congress in 2000, which described an innovation of
warm asphalt mixture and its performance based on laboratory tests and large-scale field
evaluation(Jones 2004; Koenders et al. 2000). It can therefore be said that some todays versions of
warm asphalt technologies are the brainchild resulting from European countries to lower
mixing/compaction temperatures.

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

In recent years, and despite the fact that the innovation of warm asphalt technologies remarkably
started in Europe, strong interest in these innovations is gaining in the USA. In May 2007, a team of
13 materials experts from the United State visited four European countries Belgium, France,
Germany and Norway to assess and evaluate various WMA technologies(D'Angelo et al. 2008).
From that time, extensive researches have been carried out to establish potential benefits of using
WAM and evaluating the performance compared to the traditional HMA and up to date, no negative
performance of WMA has been reported in terms of field evaluation.
2-Available Warm Technologies
In general, despite the fact that WAM technologies have different behaviours to reduce the
manufacturing and paving temperature, they obviously tend to follow the same patterns. Different
classifications can be used in order to classify the WAM technologies. One is to classify the
technologies based on the degree of temperature reduction. Warm-mix signifies an asphalt mix that
can practically be achieved at temperatures around 30oC or cooler than the typical temperature used
in HMA production and slightly above 100 and for some technologies even below the boiling
point of water. The next figure illustrates the different production temperature of flexible pavement
mixtures

Figure 2- 1 Production Temperatures of Asphalt Mixtures(Bueche 2009)

But, for a more destructive and comprehensive definition, warm technologies can be classified based
on its products to foaming process which could be sub-divided into water-containing and waterbased process, organic additives such as Fisher-Tropsch synthesis wax, fatty acid amides and Montan
wax and addition of chemical additives which can be either emulsification agents or polymers(Rubio
et al. 2012). This section of literature of the research mainly focuses on the most well-known
technologies that are extensively studied by the researchers. However, more attention will be paid to
the performance of Sasobit and Rediset as considered in this research.
Table 1 Available Warm Technologies & Companies
Product
Low Energy Asphalt
Rediest WMX & Liquid
CECABASE RTR
Double Barrel Green
Aspha-Min
Ultrafoam GxTM
Aquablack WMA
Low Emission Asphalt
EvothermR
Advera
Sasobit
WAM Foam
Warm Mix Asphalt System

Company
Advanced Concepts Engineering Co.
Akzo Nobel
Arkema Group
Astec Industries
Eurovia Services
Gencor Industries
Maxam Equipment Inc.
McCnnaughay Technologies
MeadWestvaco Asphalt Innovations
PQ Corporation
Sasol Wax Americas
Shell Bitumen
Terex Roadbuilding

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

3 Foam Technology
In this technology, small amount of water is injected into the preheated asphalt binder or could be
injected directly in asphalt mixing chamber. This will result to evaporative the water and the
liberated steam is encapsulated in the binder which can then produce large volume of foam. It is
therefore that this action will rapidly and considerably lower the viscosity of the binder by increasing
the surface area of the bitumen leading to a better distribution of the binder with the mixture which
enhances coating and workability. However, much attention should be paid in this process because
just enough water to produce foam must be added otherwise stripping problems may well happen. To
overcome this problem, antistripping additives can act as a bridge between the aggregate surface
and the asphalt binder so that moisture susceptibility is minimised. Having mentioned that, foaming
technologies is sub-categorised into two groups: water based and water containing.
3-1 Water Bearing/Containing Additives
From the point of perspective work of warm technology water-based containing, there are two
synthetic zeolite of warm technology Aspha-Min and advera which both works in smaller manner
1-Aspha-Min
Aspha-Min is finely white powdered synthetic zeolite. Zeolite is crystalline hydrated aluminium
silicates which exist in the natural environment and is also produced artificially. In general, natural
synthetic zeolite has the ability to hold different quantities of water, therefore in order to utilise this
advantage to lower the production temperature of asphalt mixture, Eurovia Services GmbH, based in
Bottrop, Germany developed Aspha-Min which is a manufactured synthetic sodium aluminium
silicate (Hurley & Prowell 2005a). From the chemical structure point of view, Zeolite has generally
framework of silicates with large empty spaces in its structure that allow providing large cations
sodium, barium and calcium, for example, and large cation groups, such as water molecule can also
available. The available water can be driven off from the zeolite structure by heating therefore; the
available spaces can be interconnected and formed long wide channels of varying sizes depending on
the mineral. These channels allow the easy movement of the resident ions and molecules into and out
of the zeolite, therefore zeolite acts as a delivery system for the new fluid(Button, Estakhri &
Wimsatt 2007; Corrigan 2005). The released water, which is typically up 20% by mass, will
evaporative and the liberated steam is encapsulated in the binder leading to a volume expansion of
the binder which results in asphalt foam and allows enhancing the workability of the mixture as well
as aggregate coating at lower temperatures. The recommended dosage of adding Aspha-Min is 3.0%
by the total weight of the asphalt mixture mass which can yield and promote a reduction in the
production temperature of approximately more than 30 and save 30% energy (Kristjnsdttir
2007) and as declared by Eurovia, it accommodates addition of RAP and uses different polymermodified binders. The foaming can effectively stand up to six hours(DTU 2010).
In terms of Aspha-Min performance, in 2005, Hurley and Prowell studied the influence of AsphaMin extensively at the National Centre for Asphalt technology (NCAT). It was highlighted that
Aspha-Min decreased the air voids by 65% on average and in parallel the compaction was improved
at temperature as low as 88. Moreover, resilient modulus was not adversely affected at any
compaction temperatures by adding Aspha-Min but the compactability improvement of Aspha-Min
mixtures led to improve the measured resilient modulus at this research. In terms of permanent
deformation, rutting potential was not increased by the addition of zeolite, on the other hand,
apparently incomplete drying of the aggregate caused by decreasing production and compaction
temperature and water enclosed in the coated aggregate attributed to the decreased the tensile
strength, therefore the visual stripping was noticed in WMA mixes manufactured at 121. In order
to mitigate the problem of the moisture damage, 1.5% of hydrated limed was accepted to enhance the
cohesion and moisture susceptibility of WMA in comparison with mixtures without the hydrated
lime. This was remarkable in enhancing the results obtained by Hamburg Wheel Tracking that
confirmed the hydrated improved the rutting resistance of warm mixtures compacted at lower
temperatures.
They concluded that the addition of Aspha-Min should not be taken in account during the
determination of the optimum asphalt content. Furthermore, if the manufactured temperature is

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

higher than 135, the same binder could be used in the design otherwise the high temperature grade
has to be increased by one grade or it is possible to minimise the tendency of decreasing rutting
resistance by adding a hydrated lime. It is also recommended that tensile strength ratio testing has to
be determined at the expected field production(Hurley & Prowell 2005a). It is however concluded by
Gandhi et al that the moisture susceptibility of warm asphalt additives was improved when sasobit
and aspha-min were evaluated at this study. They showed that tensile strength ratio values of the
unaged mixes increased(Gandhi, Rogers & Amirkhanian 2010). But, more importantly, according to
(Kheradmand et al. 2014), warm asphalt mixtures containing Aspha-Min have the worst moisture
susceptibility in comparison with other warm additives.
Gandhi and Goh et al. also highlighted that the use of Aspha-Min has no influence on the dynamic
modulus(Goh, You & Van Dam 2007). It is also demonstrated that the addition of Aspha-Min does
not significantly affect the asphalt binder grading (Barthel, Marchand & Von Devivere 2004;
Wasiuddin et al. 2007). At temperature of 135 and 120 , Aspha-Min has no significant effect on
the viscosity of the binders in comparison with base binder and more importantly the viscosity is
remarkably higher than the viscosity of conventional binders after 60 to 90 minutes (Gandhi 2008).
This is surly because of the addition of fine solid material to the binder. This issue was also
confirmed by another study. In 2009, in terms of asphalt recycling materials, it was also shown that
Aspha-Min has a negative effect to the viscosity of recycled binders as the viscosity increases when
Aspha-min is used and also it is considered that it has no positive effect on the resistance to fatigue
cracking of recycled binders(Lee et al. 2009).
2-Advera
Another type of synthetic zeolite is Advera which is developed and manufactured by PQ Corporation
in Malvern, PA, USA. Advera has the ability to store approximately 20 percent of water in its
chemical structure (Hanz, Mahmoud & Bahia 2011) and the water is released at temperature of
210 which allowes a reduction in the production temperature approximately 50-70 (Perkins
2009). It is Worth mentioning that although, the mechanism of working Advera with asphalt binder is
significantly similar to the Aspha-min, there is no remarkably effects on the rheological properties of
the mix because the zeolite will reabsorb the water again (Kheradmand et al. 2014). Several studies
have been carried out to investigate physical and mechanical properties of WMA containing Advera.
A study conducted by (Mogawer et al. 2011a) showed that in terms of moisture resistance, as the
aging time increased, the moisture susceptibility of the warm mixtures including Advera mixs
improved significantly and the most improvement of the Avdvera performance was observed with the
addition of hydrated lime over the use of liquid antistrip.
Another study conducted by (Mogawer et al. 2011b) showed, based on foaming process, Advera was
more susceptible to moisture damage in comparison with other warm technologies, Evotherm,
Sasobit and Sonnewarmix. This issue may seemingly result from some enclosed water into aggregate
leaded to stripping problems. It is however that a study conducted by other researches revealed that
the addition of Advera did not make the mixture prone to moisture damage and also concluded, there
were not favourable properties of mixtures containing Advera with highly acidic aggregates such as
granite (Ghabchi et al. 2013). In 2011, Goh and You demonstrated that warm mixtures Sasobit and
Advera had the lower values of dynamic modulus at most of the temperatures mixed and compacted
at (100, 115 and 130) and frequencies tested (from 0.1 Hz to 25Hz). This issue was
significantly at higher testing temperatures. In terms of WMA fatigue life, most WMA performed
similar or even better the control HMA apart from warm mixtures manufactured at 130. More
importantly, the WMAs fatigue life of mixtures tested at 115 had the highest fatigue life as
compared with other WMA(Goh & You 2011).
3-2 Water Based
1-Double Barrel Green
The concept of this technology is to use some type of nozzle to inject small amount of water into
asphalt binder stream. The nozzle should be computerized to control the amount of water and the
foaming rate(Button, Estakhri & Wimsatt 2007). The addition water, which is delivered to the system
using a positive displacement piston pump capable of accurately rating water into the system, will

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

microscopically foam the binder which creates encapsulated steam in the binder leading to force
enlarging the volume of the binder and decrease the viscosity of the binder.
G1 and G2 are two generations of this technology which have been designed since 2007 and
developed by Astec Industries in the USA. The main difference between these two types is the nozzle
system functionality. However, there is typically no need to make any changes in mixture design
process but foaming device should be used in the laboratory in order to simulate plant mixing.
(Middleton & Forfylow 2009) reported that the properties of asphalt binder and mixtures performed
as same as HMA. The rutting susceptibility of mixtures produced with process of Double Barrel
Green was identified to be adequate, moreover in terms of moisture susceptibility, this technology
has no negative influence on the moisture susceptibility of mixtures. Environmentally, a 10%
reduction in nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide was determined and reported in
this process as well as a 24 percent reduction in energy consumption.
It is thought that this technology may eliminate the need for expensive additives because it is only
required small amount of water to be injected to the stream of the binder but, however having
mentioned that the water should be accurately injected to avoid having stripping problem. Despite the
fact that this technology has gained more popularity in the USA, not many researches have been
conducted in this area compared with other technologies such as Advera and Aspha-Min. the
following figure illustrates the process of this technology.

Figure 2 Double Barrel Green(Equipment & Lounge ; Jenkins et al. 1999)

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

2-Low Energy Asphalt

Low Energy Asphalt (LEA) WMA technology is developed by Advanced Concepts Engineering&
Design LLC. and distributed in the USA by McConnaughay Technologies. This technology has
different process in comparison with double barrel green. The process involves mixing the hot
bitumens (140 180) with hot coarse aggregate at temperature around 290/145 and then
incorporating wet fine aggregates at ambient temperature which are not submitted to heating. This
process leads to liberate the moisture of the fine aggregates as steam and therefore, foaming action
will be resulted which facilities the fine aggregate coating (D'Angelo et al. 2008; Perkins 2009;
Rubio et al. 2012). This technology is reported to reduce the production mixing temperature to
approximately 90 which significantly yields reduction in energy savings and gas emissions.
However, the author thinks that coating and adhesion promoter should be introduced in this
technology to enhance the performance of the asphalt mixtures by minimising stripping problems.
Despite the fact that this technology has a great advantage in reducing the production temperature, it
requires a major plant modification. In 2006, Romier et al developed a kit which can be attached to a
batch plant. The kit can control the amount of cold sand by a specific hopper and also is integrated
with an advice for adding water to the fine aggregate. The RAP can also allowed to introduce
directly into the mixer(Chowdhury & Button 2008; Romier et al. 2006). They are also interestingly
highlighted reduced soiling of production equipment because of available moisture which results in
minimising the requirements of cleaning and corresponding use of solvents.
Between 2005 and 2010, more than 400,000 tons of LEA were manufactured on 40 plants (LEA-CO)
and it is reported that specific multifunctional were mostly used to enhance the foam-ability and the
coating ability of the binder. This technology was conducted successfully mainly in France by
EIFFAGE and FAIRCO and the USA by Suit Kote and to least extent in the UK by PetroPlus, in spin
by EIFFAGE Infrastructures and Newszland by Fulton Hogan. However, indeed few literatures have
been published in this area, therefore further concern is highly recommend in order to gain more
understanding about the properties of asphalt mixtures and also to check the validity of this process
with other materials, climates and mix design methods in order to discriminate the process with other
warm technologies as (Gaudefroy et al. 2007) believes, it is fertile WAM process.

Figure 2 functional Diagram Low Energy Technique, (Chowdhury & Button 2008)

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

3-Warm Asphalt Mix-Foam (WAM-Foam)

WAM-foam is a water-based foaming technology which was presented for the first time at the Euroasphalt & Euro-bitumen congress in 2000 and it was a result of work from a cooperation between
Kolo Veidekke and Shell initiated work on Warm Asphalt Mixtures with laboratory experiments
back in 1995(Koenders et al. 2000; Koenders et al. 2002). From the practical work point of view,
WAM- foam is slightly different from others technologies of water-based because soft binder and
hard are introduced at different time in the mixing cycle. The first stage involves heating up the
aggregate to around 130 and then coated with the soft binder which is accounted about 20% to
30% of the total binder. At the second stage, the hard binder is foamed by introducing water at 2 to 5
percent of mass of the hard binder at temperature about 180. The main advantage of this process is
to ensure adequate bitumen absorption of the coarse aggregate by the use the soft binder which may
not satisfy or occur with hard binder at lower temperature which then leads to sufficient distribution
of the binder in the mixture and an adequate workability through paving.
In spite of reporting 30% plant fuel reduction and 30% reduction in emission rates (Larsen et al.
2004), it still needs to heat the hard binder to the required temperature of HMA, and stripping
problem may also happen because of uncompleted water evaporation. It is however that some
researchers demonstrated WAM-foam can successfully be used in the base course and wearing
course and it has performance, in terms of volumetric properties, very similar to the compassion of
HMA using the same materials. Consequently, the mechanical properties of WAM-foam may
correspond to those of HMA. Furthermore, field studies reported that the paved sections of WAMfoam are equivalent in terms of permanent deformation and surface texture(Larsen et al. 2004).
Another study by (Losa et al. 2009) confirmed good results in terms of fatigue life and permanent
deformation of this process.
3-4 Chemical Technology
Another technology which is utilised to reduce manufactured and compaction temperature is
Chemical additives which has a different behaviour to produce WMA when added to the mix. This
technology involves different packages such as surfactants, emulsification agents, aggregate coating
enhancers and anti-stripping additives. The revision of the research focuses on the most important
chemical additives such as Evotherm and Rediset.
3-4-1 Evotherm
Evotherm is a chemical package which has been manufactured by MeadWestvaco Asphalt
Innovations and introduced to the market in 2005, included materials to improve workability,
adhesion promoters and emulsification agents. It is currently delivered with relatively high asphalt
residue (around 70%)(Bennert et al. 2010; Hurley & Prowell 2006). MeadWestvaco has developed
and distributed three kinds of Evotherm to the markets, Evotherm DAT, ET and 3G (Kheradmand et
al. 2014). It is reported by manufacture that no special requirements or modifications are needed to
pump the Evotherm to the asphalt plant. From the field paving up to date, Evotherm has directly been
pumped off a tanker truck. When Evotherm is mixed with the hot aggregate, the water in the emulsion
will be liberated in the form of steam enhanced mixture workability and aggregate coating. This
process allows asphalt application at a temperature 50 to 70 lower than traditional HMA. It was
reported that a production temperature was successfully dropped by up to 56 as demonstrated in
the fields test. This allowed energy savings of up to 55% in which 45% reduction in Co 2 and So2
emission as well as 50% reduction in Nox and 41% reduction in the total organic materials were
achieved(Sampath 2010).
In terms of Rheological properties, one can say that Evotherm has a minor effect on the bitumen
rheological properties. (Xiao, Punith & Amirkhanian 2012) identified the performance of different
warm additives including Evotherm. It was showen that Evotherm did not exhibit remarkably a
different failure temperature in comparison with control binder. Moreover, in spite of increasing mvalue of Evotherm modified binder which can enhance low temperature properties, amplitude sweep
tested at 60 in terms of strain response did not reveal any different in the complex modulus and
phase angle of evaluated warm additive apart from Sasobit in this study, in addition, Evotherm
exhibited the highest value of creep compliance. It is therefore thought that Eovtherm may be more

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

prone to deformation due to the reduction of compliance value. It is also important mentioning that
Evotherm has generally no influence on the viscosity properties of asphalt binder when investigated
based on the both rotational viscosity and NCHRP 9-39 Method(Bennert et al. 2010). As a matter of
fact, Evotherm only enhances workability of asphalt mixtures in which mixtures can be compacted at
lower temperatures.

Figure 3 Creep Compliance values of modified WMA binder in terms of various loading times
at 60.(Xiao, Punith & Amirkhanian 2012)
In 2006, Hurley and Prowell highlighted that the addition of Evotherm reduced air voids measured in
the Gyratory Compactor for given asphalt content. This issue may need to reduce the optimum
asphalt content. However, as their recommendation, further research is required to profoundly
investigate this issue because favourable performance, in terms of compaction, resulting from the
addition of Evotherm may be negated by reducing the optimum asphalt content(Hurley & Prowell
2006). Despite the fact that Evotherm has a potential to decrease rutting or similar performance as
controlled HMA as revealed by (Hurley & Prowell 2006; Mogawer et al. 2011b; Sampath 2010;
Xiao, Amirkhanian & Putman 2010), visual stripping problems were observed. Consequently, liquid
antistrip or hydrated lime could be utilised in order to remediate the WMA mixture susceptibility to
moisture damage. Having mentioned that, there is a high demand to simulate the required aging time
in the Laboratory because in fact up to date no such problem of WMA moisture damage has
highlighted in the field so far.
3-4-2 Rediset WMX and LQ
Rediset is a product delivering significant advantages to the road construction in one very convenient
chemical package. This is the most recent innovation of AkzoNobel Corporate introduced in 2007.
Two kinds of Rediset have been supplied by AkzoNobel, Rediset WMX and Rediset LQ which does
not significantly differ between each other. Rediset WMX is a solid pelletized additive and designed
in such a manner that it does not have a negative effect on the binder in its high-temperature or lowtemperature properties of bitumen at a wider dosage level(AkzoNobel). This additive is classified as
both a viscosity reducer and a surfactant. The letter type is Rediset LQ which is a surfactant,
compaction aid and active adhesion as this additive enables the bitumen to displace residual water
from the incomplete dried aggregate surface and creates a strong chemical bond between the
aggregate and the bitumen that is resistant to moisture damage. It is reported by the manufacturer that
Rediset LQ does not alter the binder properties and bitumen grade at the recommended dosage as the
recommended dosage is verifying between 0.4-0.75 percent of the total effective binder weight.
Having mentioned that, the Rediset LQ also functions as adhesion promoter, therefore the potential
need for the additional anti-strip is eliminated. Moreover, Rediset LQ could potentially improve the
stress characteristics of asphalt concrete(Hill et al. 2012). In spite of superior performance of the
innovation of AkasNobel, Rediset has not been extensively studied so far.
1Effect of Rediset on the asphalt binder properties
Studies conducted by (Xiao, Amirkhanian & Zhang 2011a, 2011b; Xiao, Punith & Amirkhanian
2012) to investigate the rheological properties of non-foaming additives revealed that the viscosity
values of all asphalt binder modified with Rediset WMX decreased as the test temperature increased

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

and it should also be mentioned that no negative effect of storage duration on viscosity was found.
Therefore, the modified binder could be stored for a certain period if it is required. This is also
confirmed by (Arega et al. 2011) but they highlighted during their study that some warm additives
involved Rediset WMX reduced the binder viscosity measured at 135 with minor exceptions. An
attention should be drawn to the performance of Rediset in terms of permanent deformation because
researches manifested the modified binder with Rediset WMX exhibited high value of compliance in
terms of creep and creep recovery test and more stress sensitive relative to the virgin binder but
without adversely significant effect on High-Temperature continuous grade (Hanz, Mahmoud &
Bahia 2011). This means that asphalt binder modified with Rediset is more prone to rutting issue, on
the other hand, it has a high m-value in comparison with virgin binder, and therefore the addition of
Rediset WMX may well lead to better thermal cracking and fatigue life performance and short-term
aging of warm modified binder plays an important role in determine the rheological properties of
asphalt binder. This mater is highlighted by (Arega et al. 2011) who also reported that the
recommended strategies such as addition of RAP to compensate the reduced initial stiffness in WMA
must be tailored to the specific kind of WMA mixture because of subjecting the short-term aged
modified binder to PAV had low temperature and fracture properties similar or lower than the PAV
residues of conventional or control asphalt binder which means the long-term aging may erase the
variation of reduced short-term aging influence in WMA. Consequently, the incorporation of RAP
materials or any other strategy to overcome the reduced initial stiffness in WMA may adversely
affect low temperature behaviour of warm asphalt mixtures.
Conversely, this issue is not corresponding with another study carried out by (Banerjee, de Fortier
Smit & Prozzi 2012) who studied the effect of long-term aging on the rheology of mix asphalt
binders. Results suggested that warm modified binder not only reduce short-term aging influence on
the rheological properties but can also retard the rate of aging in which the stiffness raises over time.
Surprisingly, more importantly, the Rediset WMX exhibited the lowest rate of aging compared with
adopted additives in this study.
During all aforementioned studies, not surprisingly, the binder source also significantly affected the
viscosity values and rheological properties of same binder grade. This fact brains in mind that the
chemical interaction between warm additives and different asphalt binder sources should be
profoundly investigated in order to select the appropriate additive dosage in which warm mixture has
similar or better performance of HMA. Rediset LQ has not been investigated deeply in the literature;
therefore this project will deeply investigate the effect of both Rediset WMX and LQ.
2Effect of Rediset on the Asphalt Mixture Properties
Some researchers have investigated the effect of Redsiet as WMA technologies to reduce the
manufactured and placement temperatures. In terms of workability and compactability, it is reported
that the recommended dosage of Rediset WMX which is 2% of binder weight exhibited the best
workability and compactability compared with 1% (Bennert et al. 2010). This certainly achieved by
the action of Rediset to reduce binder viscosity and enhance wetting of aggregate surface. Recently,
this has been confirmed by a study carried out by (Hamzah, Golchin & Tye 2013) who proclaimed
that there is a slight decrease in the marshal stability by using 3% Rediset over 2%, therefore one can
approach to the fact the 2% of Rediset give the desired and adequate performance. In addition, the
higher Rediset content the higher softening role in the asphalt mixtures will be.
Consequently, the WMAs modified with Rediset WMX exhibited superior performance in terms of
low-temperature mechanical properties. In fact, the susceptibility of chemical additives to thermal
cracking was explored by (Hill et al. 2012). As mentioned previously, the chemical additive has the
ability to emulsify the conventional binder which in result leads to softer mixes. Therefore, Hill et al
found the fracture energy of chemical modified WMA mixtures included Rediset LQ and Evotherm
slightly increased by 7% in comparison with control HMA and displayed the greatest creep
compliance whereas the addition of the organic additive (Sasobit) and foaming (Advera) decreased
the fracture energy by 12.7% and 11.1% respectively. It can therefore be demonstrated that lowtemperature characteristics are sensitive to the kind of warm technology used because the influence
of manufactured temperature was not clear as two system of WMA had higher fracture energy

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

whereas others had lower values. It should also be mentioned that the above study has not addressed
the aging issue as the NCHRP 9-43 recommended at least 2 hours aging time to simulate the
performance of warm mixture that will undergo in the field. Subsequently, study the performance of
inclusion RAP materials in WMA is highly required to offset potential low-thermal cracking issues
and achieve adequate level of rutting performance.
2-5 Organic Additives
This technology is based in using waxes asphalt mixture because when temperature reaches the
melting point of waxes, which contain high molecular hydrocarbon chains; waxes will be melted
leading to viscosity reduction in asphalt binder. However when mixtures cools these additive will
solidify into microscopically small and uniformly distributed particles in the bitumen (Rubio et al.
2012). This phenomenon leads to stiffen the binder in the smaller manner of fibre-reinforced
materials. Some researchers highlighted that complicated problems exist when the melting point of
wax is below than in-service temperature and careful selection of wax type is needed to avoid
potential temperatures problems (Shang et al. 2011; Silva et al. 2010). As a matter of fact not only the
kind of wax but also the type of binder also plays an important role in determining the performance
of inclusion synthetic waxes as the internal crystallizing fraction depends on the bitumen type and
source (Edwards & Redelius 2003). In general, the introduction of synthetic waxes to the asphalt
mixture will boost the permanent deformation resistance by increase the mixture stiffness properties
on the other hand the adversely effect on the fatigue response may exist because stiffer materials
exhibit less ductile behaviour of the mixture(Barbati et al. 2009).
Three well-known technologies of synthetic waxes are available the Fischer-Tropsch wax, fatty acid
amide and Montan wax. The author in this research will only focus on the more use wax in the WMA
whether in filed or laboratory performance, Fischer-Tropsch wax, as Sasobit is considered in the
project as the main additive.
Sasobit is a Fisher-Tropsch synthetic wax which is produced by Sasol Wax GmbH in Germany.
From the industrial point of view, when coal or natural gas is partially oxidized to carbon monoxide
and then converted into higher hydrocarbons when it is reacted with hydrogen under catalytic
conditions, the high length of carbon C5 to C100 plus carbon atoms will be generated. After that the
generation of synthesis gas is reacted with cobalt or iron catalyst to form products such as kerosene,
gasoil, synthetic naphtha and waxes. Finally, recovered Sasobit is carbon chain length range of C45
to C100 plus which is longer than microcrystalline bituminous paraffin wax chain length from C25 to
C50. (Butz, Rahimian & Hildebrand 2001; Hurley & Prowell 2005b; Wasiuddin, Saltibus &
Mohammad 2011).The chemical reaction is presented in the equation 2-1:
(2n+1)H2 + nCO2
CnH2n+2 + nH2O
(1)
Sasobit is supplied in the form of Greyish-white to yellowish Pastilles and pills (Jamshidi, Hamzah &
You 2013). It is also reported that Sasobit does not require higher shear mixing apparatus and can be
easily blended manually and /or mechanically and type of method use has no effect on the properties
of Sasobit-modified asphalt binder(Ji & Xu 2010; Sasolwax). Therefore no major modification is
required to introduce Sasobit in the aspfalt plant because it can be either mixed with hot bitumen or
added directly to the aggregate. The recommended dosage of adding Sasobit is 0.8-4% of binder
mass. More than 4% has a negative effect in terms of low-temperature properties of
bitumen(Edwards & Isacsson 2002).
3-5-1 Performance of Asphalt Binder Containing Sasobit
1Effect of Sasobit on Asphalt Binder Rheological Properties
Having mentioned that Sasobit has a predominant range of hydrocarbons chain length from 45 to 100
carbon atoms while the natural asphalt paraffin waxes is normally in the range of 25 to 45 carbon
atoms. The long chain of carbon atoms increase the plastic limit and also increase the domain of
melting temperatures of asphalt binders (Wasiuddin, Saha & King 2011; Wasiuddin, Saltibus &
Mohammad 2011). It is determined that the melting point of Sasobit is approximately 100
therefore above this temperature Sasobit liquefies the asphalt binder resulted in a reduction of asphalt
binder, thereby the manufactured temperature of asphalt mixture at which mixture should be
produced decreases. However, below the melting point of wax, Sasobit forms a lattice structure

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

which acts as a bridge between molecules and prevents their movements; consequently, it increases
the viscosity of asphalt binders at lower temperatures. It should also mention Sasobit exhibits
Newtonian behaviour at lower temperature and Non-Newtonian below its melting point(Jamshidi,
Hamzah & You 2013). Based on the manufacturer the production temperature can be approximately
depressed by 20-30. However this is not always true because the reduction in the production
temperatures is also highly affected by the binder source and grade. (Silva et al. 2010; Silva et al.
2009) reported that in order to maximise such benefit of using Sasobit, softer base bitumen should be
used and it was found that a maximum temperature reduction of 15 was achieved by using 4% of
Sasobit with a softer binder.
Many researchers investigated the rheological properties of Sasobit-modified asphalt binder. In all
seniors, Sasobit increases the complex shear modulus (G*) of asphalt binder while decreases the
phase angle () regardless of binder type and grade. Moreover, the addition of Sasobit increases the
failure temperatures of all binders and exhibits lower creep compliance and high creep stiffness with
lower m-value, subsequently enhanced the permanent deformation of asphalt binder but may
adversely affect the low-temperature properties of asphalt binder(Gandhi, Rogers & Amirkhanian
2010; Xiao, Amirkhanian & Zhang 2011a, 2011b; Xiao, Punith & Amirkhanian 2012).
However, in terms of long term aging, a study conducted by (Banerjee, de Fortier Smit & Prozzi
2012) showed that Sasobit gains a slow rate of stiffness increase over time, therefore Sasobit retards
the rate at which binder stiffness raises overtime in comparison with the conventional asphalt binder.
Moreover 2% of Sasobit increases the cohesive strength of asphalt binder evaluated by Surface free
measurements(Wasiuddin, Saha & King 2011). It is also must be mentioned that the interaction
between Sasobit and asphalt binder is only physical because a study conducted by (Menapace et al.
2014) outlined that NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) did not detect any chemical interaction due
to the addition of Sasobit.
From Sustainable engineering point of view, not surprisingly, the content and Sasobit dosage should
be carefully selected because it was reported that low-temperature cracking resistance of both unaged
and long-term aged binder decreases as the Sasobit dosage increases. In other words, asphalt binder
containing high percentage of Sasobit will be more prone to cracking issues(Liu et al. 2012). It is
therefore that more challenging may be when RAP materials are included in the mixtures.
2Effect of Sasobit on the Topography of Asphalt binder Structure
With recent and sophisticated technology, the surface of the asphalt binder can be investigated by
using AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) in order to subsequently bridge and link the observed
behaviour of asphaltic binder to the chemical makeup and bulk properties of asphalt binders
(MASSON, Leblond & Margeson 2006; Menapace et al. 2014; Rebelo et al. 2014). Briefly, it is
revealed that the bitumen can be separated into four fractions Saturates, Aromatics, Resins and
Asphaltenes (MASSON et al. 2007; Nahar et al. 2013b). The more aphaltenes there are in the asphalt
binder, the more viscous and harder that bitumen likely to be because molecules could form easily as
they carry positive and negative charge at different points therefore bonds between molecules are
easily linked. At other end of scale, the more saturates, the softer binder will be. Saturates are a nonpolar fraction and they form a soup surrounding the other molecules. However, the other molecule
kinds, aromatics and resins are intermediate components in the soup. Resins are similar to the
asphatenens and are highly polar which influence the degree to which asphaltenes are readily
dispersed within the bitumen whereas Aromatics behaves as a solvent to both resins and
asphaltenes(Thom 2008).
These components are explained by bee-structure which consist of from catana phase which is
assigned to the most rigid and polar bitumen, the asphaltenes. The peri phase is attributed to the less
polar aromatics and resins while the para phase is referred to non-polar saturates. It was therefore
possible made to investigate the effect of different polymers to the components of asphalt binder and
link between the morphology of bitumen structure and its rheological properties.
It is reported that Sasobit highly affects the morphology of asphalt binder. (Menapace et al. 2014)
found Sasobit enlargers the bee-like stratures of bitumen. In other words, Sasobit caused the catana

11

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

phase and the peri phase to grow which can reflect the presence of Sasobit in the asphalt binder. The
next figures illustrate the effect of Sasobit on 60/70 Pen and PG 76-22
60/70 Pen

PG 76-22

Figure 2- 4 Height (left) and Phase (right) images with scan size 10um and 25 m
60/70 Pen + Sasobit

PG 76-22 + Sasobit

Figure 2- 5 Height (left) and phase (right) images with scan size of 25 m
3-5-2 Performance of Asphalt Mixture Containing Sasobit
1Effect of Sasobit on Mix Design and Volumetric Properties
Sasobit is a flow modifier and viscosity reducer therefore it is expected to have influence to the
volumetric properties and mix design. (Hurley & Prowell 2005b) found that air voids of asphalt
mixtures decreased when Sasobit was added which may result in reduction in the optimum asphalt
content. It was found that using of 2.5% of Sasobit improved the compactability of the mixtures in
both the SGC (Super-pave Gyratory Compacter) and vibratory compactor in which reduced in air
voids up to 0.87%. However, another study highlighted that addition of Sasobit has no significant
influence on optimum asphalt binder content and 3% of Sasobit resulted in energy saving up to
12%(Hamzah et al. 2010). This is could be confirmed because achieving the required density is
quicker for Sasobit-WMA mixtures than for HMA even at lower compaction temperatures as the as
study by (DTU 2010) reported the modified asphalt mixtures with Sasobit reached the final density
after 100 gyrations at 135, whereas, HMA reached thefinal density after 170 gyration at 155. In
fact, one can say that Sasobit generally has on negative effect in terms of mix design and volumetric
properties.
2Effect of Sasobit on Rutting Susceptibility
In terms of lower production temperature, warm mixtures may be softer because of reduced oxidative
aging and incomplete drying aggregate. The performance of Sasobit with particular reference to
rutting susceptibility has been investigated by many researchers. Testing conducted using Homburg
Wheel tracking Test (HWTT) showed that Sasobit modified mixtures were within the allowable
rutting limit after 10,000 loading cycles(Estakhri, Button & Alvarez 2010; Hurley & Prowell 2005b;
Kim et al. 2012). The superior performance of Sasobit also was confirmed by using APA (Asphalt
Pavement Analyser). It was reported that the controlled HMA and Sasobit WMA performed
similarly and met the criterion for rutting resistance. In other words, warm mixtures containing 1.5%
Sasobit had as similar as performance of HMA after 8000 loading cycles (Goh & You 2009; Hearon
& Diefenderfer 2008).
Moreover, despite the fact that (Mohammad, Saadeh & Cooper 2008) reported Sasobit modified
mixtures presented lower modulus values, other researcher (Haggag, Mogawer & Bonaquist 2011;
Petit et al. 2012; Yang, Zhang & Wu 2009) showed that Sasobit modified mixtures had a higher | |
and also it is revealed that Sasobit-WMA exhibited an added stiffness, particularly at higher reduced
frequencies and/or lower temperatures because the addition of synthetic wax resulted a more stable

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

asphalt binder and consequently leads to a more stable asphalt mixture due to its crystallized
form(Petit et al. 2012).
Sasobit modified mixture containing moisture aggregate has investigated by (Xiao, Amirkhanian &
Putman 2010) who declared using Sasobit in the mixtures involved moisture aggregate did not
require additional treatment to satisfy the required pavement performance in terms of rutting and
concluded that the mixture with Sasobit exhibited the best rutting resistance. This coincides with a
another study undertaken by (Bennert, Maher & Sauber 2011) to study the effect of production
temperature and aggregate moisture content which revealed that as the mixing temperature reduced,
the FN (Flow Number) also decreased but it was not in the case of Sasobit-modified mixture which
was able to maintain FN values at the 270 production temperature at the 1.0% and 1.5% dosage
rates and achieved high-temperature stiffness and permanent deformation that surpassed the baseline
mixture.
In general, as (Edwards, Tasdemir & Isacsson 2006a) and (Edwards, Tasdemir & Isacsson 2006b),
Sasobit-modified mixture offered the smallest strain in dynamic creep testing, it can be concluded
that rutting performance of Sasobit-WMA is smaller or even better than HMA.
3Effect of Sasobit on Low-Temperature Performance and Fatigue Life
Asphalt mixture fatigue performance can be generally affected by a number of factors such as an
inadequate structural design, repeated heavy loads, poor drainage and construction and asphalt binder
stiffening due to aging at low and intermediate temperatures (Jamshidi, Hamzah & You 2013).
Having highlighted that Sasobit stiffens the asphalt binder consequently leads to a stiffer asphalt
mixture. However, the lower production temperature may offset the negative effect of addition
Sasobit in terms of low-temperature properties and fatigue life because it expected that binder will be
less oxidative in which results a more ductile mixture. This thought may not be true because (Hill et
al. 2012) found that the effect of manufactured temperature was not as conclusive and the selection of
warm additive affects the low-temperature properties. In that study, organic additive presented in
Sasobit reduced fracture energy by approximately 12.7% in comparison with chemical technologies
which were able to increase the fracture energy around 7% because chemical technologies may have
had a tendency to emulsify the neat asphalt binder whereas Sasobit resulted in stiffer asphalt
mixtures. This is corresponding with another study which indicated the inclusion of Sasobit increased
the chances for low-temperature cracking as lower tensile strength and failure strain reported to
Sasobit modified binder especially at lower temperatures(Liu et al. 2012)
In fact, the effect of warm additives including Sasobit on fatigue performance is not clear as some
studies showed that the fatigue life of Sasobit-modifed mixtures were similar or even better than the
control HMA when evaluated based on four-point beam fatigue testing and cyclic direct tension test
(Goh & You 2011; Haggag, Mogawer & Bonaquist 2011). Whereas the substantial effect of the
synthetic wax additive is detrimental for the fatigue cracking resistance as highlighted by (Silva et al.
2010) who also recommended that the fatigue resistance may only improve without compromising
the rutting resistance by using softer binders due to the brittle behaviour of wax additives. Therefore
the issue may be more challenge when RAP materials are considered as stiffer materials make the
mixtures more prone to fatigue deterioration.
It is therefore that one of the most important objectives of this project is to investigate and identify
the performance of warm mixtures in terms of fatigue life and low-temperature properties containing
organic and chemical additives with inclusion RAP materials in order to gain more understanding
about the behaviour of likely brittle mixtures with particular reference to different aging times.
4Effect of Sasobit on Moisture Susceptibility
Loss of bonding between the asphalt binder and aggregate, known as stripping, is a major problem
that pavement engineers are concerned about because it causes surface manifestations such as rutting,
corrugations, shoving, revelling and cracking(Caro et al. 2008; Kim & Amirkhanian 1991; Xiao &
Amirkhanian 2009; Xiao et al. 2012). Moisture damage is generally affected by a number of factors
such as the cohesive bond between the aggregate and the asphalt binder, the cohesive resistance of
the binder and the frictional resistance and interlock between aggregate particles(Jamshidi, Hamzah
& You 2013). Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the moisture damage reasons

13

Warm Mix Asphalt Lecture

Dr.Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali

included detachment which is the microscopic segregation of an asphalt film from the aggregate
surface without obvious breaking in the asphalt film and displacement which is defined as a removal
of aggregate from asphalt film by water. Moreover, Spontaneous Emulsification, Film Rupture, Pore
Pressure, Hydraulic Scouring and also pH instability mechanisms can also influence the durability of
asphalt pavement and cause a premature failure (Kiggundu & Roberts 1988; Little & Jones 2003).
The low production temperature of WMA asphalt will result incomplete drying of entrapped water in
the aggregate which make the WMA more prone to stripping issues.