Laboratory investigation of the performances of cement and fly ash modified asphalt concrete mixtures

The influence of filler materials on volumetric and mechanical performances of asphalt concrete was investigated in this study. The AC60/70 asphalt binder incorporating with cement and fly ash as filler materials was mixed with limestone following the Marshall mix design method. The filler contents of cement and/or fly ash were varied. The non-filler asphalt concrete mixtures of the AC60/70 and the polymer modified asphalt were prepared for the purpose of comparison. The investigation programme includes the indirect tensile test, the resilient modulus test and the dynamic creep test. The tests are conducted under the humid temperate environments. All tests were then carried out under standard temperature (25 °C) and high temperature (55 °C) by using a controlled temperature chamber via the universal testing machine. The wet-conditioned samples were prepared to investigate the moisture susceptibility. Results show that cement and/or fly ash were beneficial in terms of improved strength, stiffness and stripping resistance of asphalt mixture. In addition, the combined use of cement and fly ash can enhance rutting resistance at wet and high temperature conditions. The results indicate that the strength, stiffness and moisture susceptibility performances of the asphalt concrete mixtures improved by filler are comparable to the performance of the polymer modified asphalt mixture.