Testing and assessing the performance of a new warm mix asphalt with SMC

Warm mix asphalt (WMA) is a new technology which asphalt mix is produced and placed at normal temperature. It has advantages including low cost, environmentally friendly, haul-convenience, and so on. WMA has been widely tested and applied in the USA in the last decade, but it has just started in China. Recently, a new WMA using a new plastic-macromolecule-normal temperature additive, which was called “SMC” by the production company, was introduced as asphalt modifier. Based on discussing the strength forming process of this new WMA with SMC, a series of laboratory tests, including Marshall stability test (MST), boiling test (BT), modified immersion Marshall test (MIMT), freeze-thaw splitting test (FTST), rutting test (RT), low-temperature bending test (LTBT), and abrasion loss test (ALT), were conducted in this study to assess the performance of this WMA and the capability of applying it on low volume roads in China. SMC modified asphalt mixed under normal temperature is used in testing samples. It was found that this WMA product exhibited merits on its strength, which was about 6.7 kN bigger than the requirement of 5.0 kN in the JTG F40-2004, on high-temperature stability, which is about 1100 times/mm greater than the requirement of 600–1000 times/mm in the JTG F40-2004, and on its storage stability. Based on these indicators, it is recommended that this product could be used for low volume low class roads construction. However, due to the relatively lower water resistance and low-temperature cracking resistance, this product is suggested to be applied first in the areas with warm weather and little rainfall. In order to improve the performance of this WMA with SMC, further research on this SMC asphalt modifier should be continued.