Comparative study on effects of binders and curing ages on properties of cement emulsified asphalt mixture using gray correlation entropy analysis

The functions of the binders, cement and emulsified asphalt, in cement emulsified asphalt mixture are quite different from the situation where they are used in cement concrete or asphalt mixture. In addition, reasonable curing ages for the mixture are not well determined, especially in severe weather conditions. It is desirable to recommend the ranking about effects of binder's content and curing age on properties, such as indirect tensile strength (IDT), dynamic stability (DS), IDT at low temperature and dry shrinkage of the mixture to the asphalt pavement engineering. This study was performed to compare effects of binders and curing ages on the properties of the mixture using gray relation entropy analysis. In addition, Zeta potential, viscosity, microstructures, hydration heat of the binders and absorption between cement and emulsified asphalt were also tested to analyze the mechanism. The results indicate that IDT and DS values of the mixture increase remarkably with the increase of cement content. Emulsified asphalt content has a direct relation with IDT at low temperature. The dry shrinkage shows an abrupt increase at the 28-curing day. It is recommended the ranking of the following correlation degrees through the results from the gray correlation degree analyses: cement content > emulsified asphalt content > curing age (IDT); cement content > curing age > emulsified asphalt content (DS); emulsified asphalt content > cement content > curing age (IDT at low temperature) and curing age > cement content > emulsified asphalt content (dry shrinkage).