SUPERPAVE

Doc. No: QMD/2019-12-3/28

No. of Pages: 10 of A4 Size
DOI: Dec 2019

{The contents of this Doc. are based upon Highway Engineering by SK Khanna and
CEG Justo, Principles of Pavement Design by EJ Yoder, Superpave Mix Design based
upon American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
Standards, Asphalt Institute, Lexington, Kentucky, USA, and relevant IRC Standards}

BITUMEN MIX DESIGN PREVALENT IN INDIA

In India, Bitumen Mix Design for laying of DBM, SDBC and BC is designed
mostly by Marshall Method. At some sites, Hveem and Hubbard-Field
Methods are also in vogue. In these methods, laboratory test results on the
mixes used to correlate with the performance, to some extent. It may be noted
that for certain tests, ‘Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
Specifications (Rev. 5)’ refers AASHTO Specs., ASTM Standards.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Specifications (Rev. 5) stipulates

the grading of aggregates, selection of type of Bitumen Binder as per climate
conditions but it does not include the long term behaviour of bitumen.

Flexible Pavements Bitumen Mixes consists of two basic ingredients:

aggregate and asphalt binder. Mix design popularly known as Job Mix
Formula or Recipe is the process of determining what aggregate to use
(grading and other properties of aggregates), what asphalt binder to use and
what the optimum combination of these two ingredients ought to be.

Superior Performing Asphalt Pavement System - Superpave

Under the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) in US, an initiative
was undertaken in 1993 to improve materials selection and mixture design by
developing:

1. A new mix design method that accounts for traffic loading and
environmental conditions.
2. A new method of asphalt binder evaluation.
3. New methods of mixture analysis.

Why Superpave
Superpave technology offers significant potential for mitigating pavement
performance problems such as extreme temperatures, environmental
conditions, traffic impacts of transit operations, and frequent stopping and
turning manoeuvres
• Superpave improves the correlation between material properties and
pavement performance
• It evaluates the binders' abilities in resisting rutting, fatigue and low
temperature cracking based on their rheological properties at the
anticipated pavement temperatures.

Superpave is a tool that gives highway engineers and contractors to design

asphalt pavements that will perform better under extremes of temperature
and heavy traffic loads.
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Superpave - a new mix design and analysis system based on performance
characteristics of the pavement.
• It is a multi-faceted system with a tried approach to designing asphalt
mixtures based on desired performance.
• Using the Superpave system, materials and mixes can be designed to
reliably perform under any conditions of load and environment.

Principle of Superpave Mix Design

The Superpave mix design method was designed to replace
the Hveem and Marshall methods of Job Mix Formula. The Superpave system
uses asphalt binder and aggregate selection into the mix design process, and
considers traffic and climate as well. The compaction is done by a gyratory
compactor and the compaction effort in mix design also takes into account
the expected traffic. However, the volumetric analysis common to the Hveem
and Marshall methods.

Superpave system consists of three interrelated elements :

1. Asphalt binder specification
2. Volumetric mixture design and analysis system
3. Mix analysis tests and a performance prediction system that includes
computer software

Gyratory Compactor
Gyratory Compaction is a small compacting machine (somewhat similar
to CTM) and is used to simulate and reproduce the real compaction
conditions under actual road paving operations, hence determining the
compaction properties of the asphalt.
Such compaction is achieved in a fully automatic way, by combining
the rotary action and the vertical resultant force applied by a
mechanical head.
Load is applied by an electro-pneumatic cylinder, servo-controlled by a
precision pressure regulator; the height is measured by a linear
transducer. Gyratory motion is generated by an eccentric high precision
system allowing an easy set up with precision and constant angle of
gyration.

Benefits of Superpave
Superpave system primarily addresses three pavement distresses:

1. Permanent deformation, which results from inadequate shear strength

in the asphalt mix at high pavement temperatures

2. Fatigue cracking, which occurs mainly because of repeated traffic loads

at intermediate pavement temperatures

3. Low temperature cracking, which is generated when an asphalt

pavement shrinks and the tensile stress exceeds the tensile strength at
low pavement temperatures

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Superpave Procedure
The Superpave mix design method consists of 7 basic steps:

1. Aggregate selection.
2. Asphalt binder selection.
3. Sample preparation (including compaction).
4. Performance Tests.
5. Density and voids calculations.
6. Optimum asphalt binder content selection.
7. Moisture susceptibility evaluation.

1. Aggregate Selection
Aggregate gradation influences key parameters Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) such
as stiffness, stability, durability, permeability, workability, fatigue resistance,
frictional resistance and resistance to moisture damage (Roberts et al.,
1996). Additionally, the maximum aggregate size can be influential
in compaction and lift thickness determination.
Gradation Specifications
Superpave mix design specifies aggregate gradation control points through
which aggregate gradations must pass. These control points are very general
and are a starting point for a job mix formula.
Typical Superpave aggregate grading specifications for 37.5 mm, 25mm,
19mm, 12.5mm and 9.5 mm nominal aggregate sizes as per AASHTO Specs
are as under:
Sieve Percent Passing Criteria
Size Nominal Maximum Sieve Size
(mm) 9.5mm 12.5mm 19mm 25mm 37.5mm
50 100
37.5 100 90 – 100
25.0 100 90 – 100
19.0 100 90 – 100 - -
12.0 100 90 – 100 - - -
9.50 90 – 100 - - - -
2.36 32 – 67 28 – 58 23 – 49 19 – 45 15 – 41
0.075 2 – 10 2 – 10 2–8 1–7 0–6
Recommended Restricted Zone
4.75 - - - 39.5 34.7
2.36 47.2 39.1 34.6 26.8 – 30.8 23.3 – 27.3
1.18 31.6 – 37.6 25.6 – 31.6 22.3 – 28.3 18.1 – 24.1 15.5 – 21.5
0.60 23.5 – 27.5 19.1 – 23.1 16.7 – 20.7 13.6 – 17.6 11.7 – 15.7
0.30 18.7 15.5 13.7 11.4 10.0

Aggregate Blending
It is rare to obtain a desired aggregate gradation from a single aggregate
stockpile. Therefore, Superpave mix designs usually draw upon several
different aggregate stockpiles and blend them together in a ratio that will

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produce an acceptable final blended gradation. It is quite common to find a
Superpave mix design that uses 3 or 4 different aggregate stockpiles

Gyratory compactor Superpave gyratory compactor sample (left) vs.

Hveem/Marshall compactor sample (right).

The Superpave gyratory compactor establishes three different gyration

numbers:

1. Ninitial The number of gyrations used as a measure of mixture

compactability during construction. Mixes that compact too quickly (air
voids at Ninitial are too low) may be tender during construction and
unstable when subjected to traffic. Often, this is a good indication of
aggregate quality – HMA with excess natural sand will frequently fail
the Ninitial requirement. A mixture designed for greater than or equal to
3 million ESALs with 4 percent air voids at Ndesign should have at least
11 percent air voids at Ninitial.
2. Ndesign This is the design number of gyrations required to produce a
sample with the same density as that expected in the field after the
indicated amount of traffic. A mix with 4 percent air voids at Ndesign is
desired in mix design.
3. Nmax The number of gyrations required to produce a laboratory density
that should never be exceeded in the field. If the air voids at Nmax are
too low, then the field mixture may compact too much under traffic
resulting in excessively low air voids and potential rutting. The air void
content at Nmax should never be below 2 percent air voids.
Typically, samples are compacted to Ndesign to establish the optimum asphalt
binder content and then additional samples are compacted to Nmax as a
check. Table 6 lists the specified number of gyrations for Ninitial, Ndesign and
Nmax while Table 7 shows the required densities as a percentage of theoretical
maximum density (TMD) for Ninitial, Ndesign and Nmax.

Note that traffic loading numbers are based on the anticipated traffic level on
the design lane over a 20-year period regardless of actual roadway design
life (AASHTO, 2001).

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Number of Gyrations and Required Densities for Ninitial, Ndesign and Nmax (AASHTO, 2001)

20-yr Traffic Ninitial Ndesign Nmax

Loading No. of Reqd. Density No. of Reqd. Density No. of Reqd. Density
(in millions Gyration as %age of Gyration as %age of Gyration as %age of
of ESALs) TMD TMD TMD
< 0.3 6 <91.5 50 75
0.3 to 2.99 7 <90.5 75 115
3 to 9.99 8 (7) 100 (75) 160
96.0 ≤ 98.0
(115)
<89.0
10 to 29.9 8 100 160
≥ 30 9 125 205

When the estimated 20-year design traffic loading is between 3 and 9.99 initial = 7, Ndesign = 75 and Nmax = 115.

Performance Tests

The original intent of the Superpave mix design method was to subject the
various trial mix designs to a battery of performance tests akin to what the
Hveem method does with the stabilometer and cohesion meter, or the
Marshall method does with the stability and flow test. The most likely
performance test, called the Simple Performance Test (SPT) is a Confined
Dynamic Modulus Test.

Density and Voids Analysis

All mix design methods use density and voids to determine basic HMA
physical characteristics. Two different measures of densities are typically
taken:

1. Bulk specific gravity (Gmb).

2. Theoretical maximum specific gravity (TMD, Gmm).

These densities are then used to calculate the volumetric parameters of the
HMA. Measured void expressions are usually:

 Air voids (Va), sometimes expressed as voids in the total mix (VTM)
 Voids in the mineral aggregate (VMA)
 Voids filled with asphalt (VFA)

Minimum VMA Requirements and VFA Range Requirements (from AASHTO, 2001)

20-yr Traffic Loading Minimum VMA (percent) VFA

(in millions of ESALs) 9.5 12.5 19.0 25.0 37.5 Range
mm mm mm mm mm (percent)
< 0.3 70 – 80
0.3 to 2.99 65 – 78
3 to 9.99 15.0 14.0 13.0 12.0 11.0
10 to 29.9 65 – 75
≥ 30

NB: Traffic loading numbers are based on the anticipated traffic level on the design lane over
a 20-year period regardless of actual roadway design life (AASHTO, 2001).

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2. Selection of Optimum Asphalt Binder Content

The optimum asphalt binder content is selected as that asphalt binder

content that results in 4 percent air voids at Ndesign. This asphalt content
then must meet several other requirements:

1. Air voids at Ninitial > 11 percent (for design ESALs ≥ 3 million)

2. Air voids at Nmax > 2 percent.
3. VMA above the minimum values as mentioned above.
4. VFA within the range as mentioned above.

If requirements 1,2 or 3 are not met the mixture needs to be redesigned. If

requirement 4 is not met but close, then asphalt binder content can be
slightly adjusted such that the air void content remains near 4 percent but
VFA is within limits. This is because VFA is a somewhat redundant term
since it is a function of air voids and VMA (Roberts et al., 1996[1]).

Moisture Susceptibility Evaluation

Resistance of Compacted Bituminous Mixture to Moisture-Induced Damage is

determined as per AASHTO T 283 by Lottman Test.

Lottman test: Tests 3 sets of compacted samples. Group 1, the control

group, is not conditioned. Group 2, representing field performance at 4 years,
is subjected to vacuum saturation with water. Group 3, representing field
performance at 4 to 12 years, is subjected to vacuum saturation and a freeze-
thaw cycle. A split tensile test is performed on each sample and the ratio of
the indirect tensile strength of the conditioned samples is compared to the
control group as a ratio. A minimum tensile strength ratio (TSR) of 0.70 to
0.80 is often used as a standard.

Performance Grading of Bitumen in Superpave

The Asphalt binder grading system in Superpave is called the Performance
Grading (PG) system. The performance grading of bitumen is based on the
evaluation of the material performance when in use, unlike being rational as
in viscosity grading system.

Superpave binders are designated with a "PG" rating. The first number in the
rating indicates the high temperature grade; the second indicates the low
temperature grade.
For example, a binder classified PG58-28 would meet the required physical
properties at pavement temperatures as high as 58°C and as low as -28°C.
The available higher grades are PG 52, PG 58, PG 64, PG 70, PG 76 and PG
82. The lower grades are -4, -10, -16, -22, -28, -34 and so on.

Both the temperature levels increment at a rate of 6°C.

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If in Rajasthan the project site has maximum 7day record temperature of
pavement as 70°C and a minimum temperature of -3°C, PG 70 - 4 bitumen
will be specified for that project.

All PG Binders are characterized based upon fundamental engineering

parameters.
1. It accounts for the impact of climatic factors on binder characteristics
at both the hot and cold temperature regimes
2. In addition to climatic conditions, traffic and aging control the
performance of the pavement.

Features of Superpave Performance Grading of Bitumen

The Superpave performance grading system incorporates the following
salient features:

The bitumen simulation for a period of 5 to 10 years, to understand its

performance with age was developed. This is a long-term bitumen aging
test.
The tests and specification of Superpave system intend to avoid three
main damages in bitumen i.e. raveling, fatigue cracking and thermal
cracking. These failures happen at high, intermediate and low
temperature respectively.
The pavement is taken for testing for the entire range of temperature as
shown in the figure below. A rotational viscometer is taken to determine
the viscosity at 135°C. The viscoelastic property of bitumen at two
temperatures is determined with the help of a dynamic shear
rheometer. The first temperature is “high temperatures” maximum 7day
temperature during a hot summer day of the project site. The second
one is “intermediate temperature”, which is the average annual
temperature of the pavement at the project site.
During Winter a bending beam rheometer and direct tension tester are
used to measure the bitumen rheological properties at the project site.

The testing carried on the pavement at project site for entire range of temperature in a
Superpave grading system (As per FHWA)

Simulation of Conditions
1. To simulate climatic conditions, testing is conducted at three pavement
temperatures: hot, Intermediate and cold pavement temperatures.

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 2. To simulate traffic conditions, an average rate of loading was assumed
for normal highway speeds. Heavy traffic conditions may be addressed
by selecting a binder corresponding to higher temperatures.
3. To simulate binder aging, a new rolling thin film oven procedure is used
which allows for rapid aging/oxidation of an asphalt binder.
The mix designer selects a Superpave binder based on the climate in
which the pavement will serve and the traffic it will bear.
TESTS FOR PG GRADING
1. Direct tension test - Measures resistance of asphalt to thermal cracking

Direct Tension Tester (DTT) Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR)

2. Bending beam test – Measures critical stiffness at which the asphalt

becomes brittle and susceptible to thermal cracking

3. Pressurized Aging Vessel (PAV) – In order to simulate the most severe

case, the thermal cracking analysis is conducted using the asphalt which
has gone through the accelerated aging process using the PAV

Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV)

4. Dynamic shear test

– Used for fatigue and rutting characterisation with shear modulus
parameter (G*)
– For fatigue characterisation, the binder is aged through PAV process
- For rutting characterisation, the binder is aged through Rolling Thin
Film
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 Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR)

Rolling Thin Film Oven (RTFO) Vacuum Saturator

Rotational Viscometer (RV) Split tensile testing machine

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TESTS FOR PG GRADING AND EQUIPMENT DETAILS

Equipment Purpose Performance Testing Price Range (Rs)

Parameter Procedure (Year 2019 Level)

Rolling Thin Simulate binder Resistance to AASHTO 4,00,000 -

Film aging aging T240 4,50,000
Oven (RTFO) during HMA during ASTM D2872
production construction
and construction
Pressure Aging Simulate binder Resistance to AASHTO PP1 6,00,000 –
Vessel (PAV) aging aging during 7,50,000
during HMA service service life
life (5- 10 years)
Rotational Measure binder Handling and ASTM D4402 2,50,000 –
Viscometer properties at high pumping AASHTO 2,75,500
(RV) construction TP48
temperatures
Dynamic Shear Measure binder Resistance to AASHTO TP5 15,00,000 –
Rheometer properties at high permanent 17,50,000
(DSR and deformation
intermediate (rutting) and
temperatures fatigue
cracking
Bending Beam Measure binder Measures critical AASHTO TP1 10,00,000 –
Rheometer properties at low stiffness at which 12,50,000
(BBR) service the asphalt
temperatures becomes brittle
and susceptible
to thermal
cracking -
Resistance to
thermal cracking
Direct Tension Measure binder Resistance to AASHTO TP3 25,00,000 -
Tester (DTT) properties at low Thermal 27,25,000
service Cracking
temperatures
Split Tensile Measure split Moisture AASHTO 25,00,000 -
Strength tensile strength Susceptibility T 283 35,00,000
Testing under different Evaluation
Machine and conditions
Vacuum
Saturator

WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR - 2020

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