Effect of compaction energy on physical and mechanical performance of bitumen emulsion mortar: Fid-Bau Portal

Effect of compaction energy on physical and mechanical performance of bitumen emulsion mortar

Miljković, Miomir / Radenberg, Martin

Abstract An implementation of innovative material concepts like composites of bitumen emulsion and cement is crucial to increase the environmental sustainability of pavement construction industry. Although, newly developed method for characterising the influence of bitumen emulsion on the asphalt mixture performance significantly facilitates the evaluation of such composites, there is still a potential for its improvement. The research objective was to evaluate the effect of compaction energy on the performance of the reduced-size cylindrical bitumen emulsion mortar specimens and select the most suitable compaction pattern to be adopted as a standard procedure. Different compaction energy was applied by varying the static compaction conditions, i.e. force and time-related parameters, and the effect on the mechanical properties was determined by indirect tensile testing. The results showed the substantial influence of the compaction energy on the resulting mechanical properties. The primary causes for this were the changes in the volumetric structure of the specimens at lower forces and shorter time of compaction, and the micro-damage by destruction of the early bonding at higher forces and longer time of compaction. Contrary to this, the evaluation of the loss of water by evaporation concerning the cement hydration did not show any clear implication. This emphasised the need to continue the research on the fundamental understanding of the influence of cement hydration on the distribution of the water phase in the mixtures with bitumen emulsion over time.