Evaluation of fracture resistance of warm mix asphalt containing jute fibers

• Fracture resistance (FR) of WMA with jute fibers, increases with decreasing Temp.
• The Max. and Min. improvements of FR of modified WMA are observed in pure modes.
• Addition of jute fibers increases FR of WMA in mode I and mixed-mode (Me = 0.5).
• When shear load increases, the Keff of modified WMA decreases and then increases.

This study investigates the low temperature performance of warm mix asphalt (WMA) reinforced by randomly distributed jute fibers. WMA is a kind of asphalt mixture that is produced at 20–55 °C lower than typical hot mix asphalt (HMA). Finite element (FE) analysis was carried out to obtain the geometry factors of semi-circular bend (SCB) specimens under pure mode I, pure mode II and mixed mode (I/II) loading. Then the fracture resistance of the WMA mixtures containing Sasobit and reinforced by different percentages of jute fibers (0, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7%) were measured at 0 °C, −10 °C and −20 °C. The results of this research show that jute fibers improve the fracture resistance of the WMA mixtures under pure mode I and mixed mode with a higher proportion of the tension. Meanwhile, the results indicate when shear load increases, the fracture resistance of the modified WMA mixtures first decreases and then increases.

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