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International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157
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Characteristics of asphalt binder and mixture containing nanosilica

Mahmoud Enieb a, Aboelkasim Diab b,⇑
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Assiut University, 71516, Egypt
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Aswan University, Aswan 81542, Egypt

Received 20 June 2016; received in revised form 23 September 2016; accepted 30 November 2016
Available online 19 December 2016

Abstract

The aim of this study is to address the feasibility of using nanosilica (NS) in bituminous pavements from the perspective of asphalt
binder and corresponding mixture characteristics. In this paper, the characteristics of asphalt binder containing 0%, 2%, 4% and 6% of
NS have been investigated in terms of the penetration, softening point, viscosity, and changes in chemical bonds using the Fourier Trans-
form Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. An additional laboratory study was conducted to characterize the performance properties of the
corresponding asphalt mixtures based on the resilient modulus, indirect tensile strength, fracture energy, moisture susceptibility, and fati-
gue life. Overall, the addition of NS material has a positive influence on different properties of the asphalt binder and mixture and can be
used to construct durable pavements, thereby reduce the life-cycle costs of the pavement.
Ó 2016 Chinese Society of Pavement Engineering. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Nanosilica; Binder properties; Mixture; ITS; Fatigue

1. Background and introduction
When the asphaltic materials do not satisfy the require-
ments for constructing a well-performing bituminous struc-
ture, modification usually is adopted as one of the best and
most attractive strategies for meeting the desired properties
of used materials. Better engineering of complex materials
such as asphalt at the nano level will result in a range of
newly introduced smart characteristics. Researchers have
tried to utilize different types of additives to alter the per-
formance of the bituminous materials in a good way
[1,2]. Feynman concept [3] and the revolutionary achieve-
ments in different sciences have motivated the possibility
of engineering materials at an extremely small level (mole-
cules and atoms) [4–6]. Since the last decade or so, nan-
⇑ Corresponding author. Fax: +20 974661406.
E-mail addresses: m.enieb@aun.edu.eg (M. Enieb), daali@mtu.edu
(A. Diab).
Peer review under responsibility of Chinese Society of Pavement
Engineering.
otechnology has been intense to help to enhance the
performance and construct durable pavements. Nanotech-
nology is the engineering of structures at the nanoscale to
produce materials with characteristics comparable to same
materials at the regular size [6,7]. Basically, it is new tactics
of making things understandable and controlled over fun-
damental building scales (i.e. atoms, molecules, and nanos-
tructures) of all physical things [8]. By reducing the
material dimensions from regular to nano size, obvious
changes in the optical absorption, chemical reactivity, elec-
tronic conductivity and even mechanical properties occur
[9]. In other words, by moving from micro to nano size,
more atoms are located on a particle’s surface as the sur-
face area is increased substantially, which results in a sig-
nificant change in surface energies and surface
morphologies of the whole material and alter the physico-
chemical properties of the material [6,10].
Several nanomaterials have the possibility to be utilized
to modify asphalt, as for examples, nano-sized hydrated
lime, nano-sized plastic powders or polymerized powders,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijprt.2016.11.009
1996-6814/Ó 2016 Chinese Society of Pavement Engineering. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157 149

nanoclay, nanosilica, nanotubes and nanofibres [11]. The Table 1

nanomaterial is composed of functional structures of the Physical properties of asphalt binder 60/70.
material with at least one characteristic dimension mea- Property Results Standard followed
sured in nanometers (nm) [12]. A dimension that falls on Penetration at 25 °C 100 g, 5 s, 0.1 mm 65 ASTM D5
the length scale of 1–100 nm range is stipulated to be used Softening Point (ring and ball), °C 51 ASTM D 36
as the nanomaterial to provide a fundamental understand- Kinematic viscosity at 135 °C, C.st. 360 ASTM D 2170
Absolute viscosity at 60 °C, Pa.s 210 ASTM D 2171
ing of the phenomena [13–15]. In general, the application Retained penetration (%) 50 ASTM D5
of nanotechnology has many benefits to bituminous mate- Mass loss (%) 0.12 ASTM D1754
rials [16], such as enhance the storage stability of polymer- Ductility at 25 °C, 5 cm/min, cm +100 ASTM D113
modified asphalt, decrease the aging, decrease the moisture Flash point, °C (Cleveland Open Cup) 250 ASTM D92
susceptibility, improve low-temperature properties, Specific gravity 1.018 ASTM D70
Solubility in trichloroethylene, % 99.9 ASTM D 2042
improve the pavement durability, and decrease mainte-
nance costs. The nanosilica (NS) material has been exten-
sively used as an inorganic additive to improve the polymorphs of silicon dioxide, SiO2, has been used to mod-
properties of bituminous materials [17–20]. Over the last ify the asphalt binder. A transmission electron microscope
decade, the NS has gained a great attention by pavement (model: TECNAI G2 spirit TWIN) has been used to scan
researchers for preparing asphaltic materials with desirable the nanostructured particles of the NS material as shown
properties because of its excellent stability, low cost, high in Fig. 1b. The properties and characteristics of the used
surface area, chemical purity, strong adsorption, and good material are mentioned in Table 2.
dispersing ability [21–23]. NS material has been used before To prepare the modified binder, 500 g of the base
to reinforce cementitious mixtures [24] and to reinforce the asphalt binder was heated to 160 °C and blended with
elastomers such as solute [25]; the advantage of such mate- the NS material using a shear mixer at a rate of
rial comes from the low cost of manufacturing and the per- 2000 rpm for 1 h. The NS material was blended with the
formance benefits [26]. As the silica material is highly base binder at different concentrations (2, 4 and 6 wt.%),
reactant with the asphalt binder than conventional fillers, and various qualification test methods have been carried
and the dispersal ability of NS particles into asphalt binder, out on the prepared samples to determine the effect of
one can prepare polymeric nano composite with desirable NS on the properties of asphalt binders. It is worth men-
performance [27,28]. In a study by Yao et al. [29], the tioning that the base binder has been mixed with no addi-
asphalt binder was modified with the NS at contents 4% tive under the same mixing conditions to avoid any varied
and 6%, by the weight. It has been observed that the degree of aging between the unaged prepared binders dur-
performance of aging, rutting, and fatigue cracking of ing the mixing process.
NS-modified binders has been improved. When the modi-
fied binder was added to the reference (control) mixture,
a considerable improvement was observed in terms of resis- 2.2. Testing of asphalt binders
tant to rutting (permanent deformation), flow number, and
dynamic modulus. Physical tests including penetration test at 25 °C [30],
The objective of this study is to provide practitioners softening point test [31] and viscosity test [32] using Brook-
some characteristics of NS-modified binder and mixture field viscometer (model DV-II) were carried out on virgin
from which the feasibility of using NS in bituminous pave- asphalt binders. Although the penetration test is an old
ments can be attained. Different properties of prepared method, it is still used by many around the world for mea-
asphalt binders were examined based on the penetration suring the hardness of asphalt binders at standard test con-
test, softening point test, viscosity test, and Fourier Trans- ditions. The flow and consistency of an asphalt binder are
form Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy method. In addition, known from the softening point test. The Brookfield rota-
the mechanical performance of the compacted asphalt mix- tional viscometer is commonly used nowadays to charac-
tures were investigated by evaluating the resilient modulus, terize the viscosity of asphalt binders. Using the
tensile strength, fracture energy, moisture susceptibility, penetration and softening point (SP) results, the Penetra-
and fatigue life. tion Index (PI) and hence the temperature susceptibility
of asphalt binders can be established using the nomograph
2. Experimental program and methodology of PI (SP/pen) [33]. Further, a spectroscopic testing analy-
sis as it serves as a fingerprint of the compound was carried
2.1. Materials and preparation of asphalt binders out on virgin asphalt binders using an infrared spec-
troscopy, FTIR, to assess the effectiveness of adding the
An asphalt binder of 60/70 penetration grade obtained NS on the asphalt binder (bitumen) from the chemical
from Suez refinery, Egypt, was used in the present investi- functional groups point of view. The infrared spectra were
gation. The properties of the supplied base binder are listed recorded using a Thermo-Nicolet 6700 FTIR spectrometer
in Table 1. The NS material in white color powder by 32 scans in wavenumbers ranging from 4000 to
(Fig. 1a), a synthetic amorphous silica, is nanostructured 400 cm 1 and 4 cm 1 resolution. The FTIR method is
150 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157

Fig. 1. A Picture of NS powder (a) and nanostructured particles of NS (b).

Table 2 comparable, all the mixtures were mixed at 168 °C and

Properties of silicon dioxide material.
Purity Bulk density Surface area
+99% 0.2 g/cm3 140.3 m2/g
described elsewhere (e.g. [34]). All the FTIR plots were
recorded as the radiation transmitted versus the wavenum-
ber, i.e. frequency of light radiations. As light passes
through an asphalt binder sample, an amount is absorbed
by molecules in the material and the rest passes through the
material, giving an indication of the chemical functional
groups within the medium due to any changes, such as
modification. As these functional groups are responsible
for different characteristics of such complex material, it
can then be identified by the FTIR. Transmittance is the
output of interest in this paper as a quantification of how
much light passes through a material, i.e. asphalt binder.
As the amount of light that passes through increases, the
transmittance increases too. Transmittance is defined as
the ratio of the intensity of transmitted light through tested
material to the intensity of incident light, represented as a
percentage,%.
compacted at 155 °C. Although the Marshall method is
True density empirical in essence, it is useful in comparing different
2.4 g/cm3 asphalt mixtures under specific conditions. Crushed dolo-
mite as coarse aggregates (bulk specific gravity of 2.75),
siliceous sand as a fine aggregate (bulk specific gravity of
2.67) and limestone dust as mineral filler (bulk specific
gravity of 2.60) were used to prepare all the asphalt mix-
tures. The total gradation of the aggregates blend and the
specification limits are presented in Table 3. The prepared
samples were compacted with 75 blows for each side using
an automatic compactor then kept curing at room temper-
ature for 24 h before any testing. A design asphalt content
of 4.8% (by weight of dry aggregate) was selected at 4% air
void content based on Marshall method. The binder con-
tent was kept constant so that the variation in the proper-
ties of the compacted mixtures mainly depends on the effect
of the NS concentrations. Base binder with the penetration
grade 60/70 mentioned before was used to prepare all the
mixtures. Nine specimens were prepared for each mixture.
2.4. Testing of compacted mixtures

2.3. Materials and preparation of compacted mixtures
The compacted Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) specimens
prepared herein were fabricated in accordance with Mar-
shall procedure (ASTM D6926 [35]). As per the rotational
viscosity standard (0.17 ± 0.02 Pa.s for mixing and 0.28
± 0.03 Pa.s for compaction) and to maintain the results
As a nondestructive test, firstly three prepared speci-
mens for each mixture were utilized to perform the resilient
modulus test. To perform the test, a diametrical repeated
loading of 1000 N is applied at 25 °C and a frequency of
1 Hz on the asphaltic specimen. Each loading cycle
consisted of 0.1 s (loading) and 0.9 s (resting period) to
measure the efficiency of resilience of the unmodified and

Table 3
Gradation of aggregates blend and specification.
Sieve size 1 in. 3/4 in. 3/8 in. No. 4 No. 8 No. 30 No. 50 No. 100 No. 200
(25.4 mm) (19.0 mm) (9.51 mm) (4.76 mm) (2.38 mm) (0.595 mm) (0.297 mm) (0.149 mm) (0.074 mm)
Percent 100 95.3 71.4 48 41.3 29.9 16.5 7.1 3.5
passing
Specification 100 80–100 60–80 48–65 35–50 19–30 13–23 7–15 3–8
 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157 151

NS-modified mixtures. The resilient modulus is an estima- of 4 mm/min until failure of the specimens using a Univer-
tion of the pavement response to traffic loading can be sal Testing Machine (UTM). The slower loading rate is
mathematically defined as the ratio of repeated applied preferred to help monitoring reasonable results. The
stress to the corresponding recoverable strain, after a cer- machine head applies loading on the ITS head through
tain number of loading cycles. The increased modulus of two opposite steel loading strips of 19 mm width at 25 °
resilient of an asphalt mixture is an indication of an C, meanwhile the horizontal and vertical deformations
expected better performing pavement at a specific temper- were recorded simultaneously (Fig. 2a). The horizontal
ature, since the mixture is able to bounce back upon releas- deformation was monitored using two opposite dial gauges
ing the applied stresses. In accordance with ASTM D7369 touching the outer horizontal diameter of the specimen.
[36], the resilient modulus, is determined with the assumed No extensometers were installed in the vertical direction;
Poisson’s ratio of 0.35, magnitude of cyclic loading, thick- however, the moving head of the machine was used instead
ness of specimen, and the measured recoverable horizontal to measure the vertical deformation. The maximum
deformation. recorded load, and appropriate geometrical factors of the
The split tension test has been used herein for estimat- specimen, diameter, and thickness, the maximum tensile
ing the tensile strength, fracture energy, moisture suscepti- stress the specimen can withstand, ITS as per AASHTO
bility and fatigue life of the studied asphalt concrete T 322-07 [38] can be calculated.
mixtures. For each mixture, three dry specimens and three The ITS of asphalt specimens can be used as an indica-
wet specimens were tested for the Indirect Tensile Strength tor to assess the quality of asphalt mixtures against mois-
(ITS) test (AASHTO T283 Test [37]). Three outputs were ture damage when the values are determined for both dry
examined through the ITS test: (a) tensile strength, (b) and conditioned specimens (ITS wet, 60 °C, and 24 h).
fracture energy, and (c) Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR). Another set of three specimens, also compacted to 4% air
The ITS can be measured by applying a diametrical com- void content for each mixture, was conditioned in a water
pressive loading on Marshall standard samples bath at 60 °C, for a period of 24 h, then tested (wet ITS at
(101.6 mm diameter and approximately 63.5 mm height). 25 °C) [37]. The TSR is expressed as a percentage of the wet
The ITS test was carried out to determine the strength ITS to the dry ITS times 100 is used to evaluate the mois-
and strain of the compacted specimen in a displacement ture susceptibility of asphalt mixtures which refers to the
control mode by applying a relatively slow loading rate loss of serviceability of the pavements due to the effect of

Repeated Load
Applied Load

Dial gauge to
Marshall measure horizontal
Specimen deformation

Marshall
Specimen

Loading Strip
(a) (c)
Indirect Tensile Stress

Peak stress, ITS

Strain
(b) (d)
Fig. 2. Schematic of ITS test and stress–strain curve (a and b respectively), and schematic of fatigue test and stress–time curve (c and d respectively).
152 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157

moisture. Typically, lower than 85% ratio, the mixture is 70

considered susceptible or prone to stripping.
The fracture energies of the studied mixtures were esti-
60

Penetration, 0.1 mm
mated from the ITS test. The fracture energy as a funda-
mental property has been extensively used in the study of
concrete materials. Several studies (e.g., [39,40]) have used 50
the ITS test to determine the fracture properties of asphalt
concrete mixtures. The fracture energy is calculated as the
area under applied stress versus resulting strain curve up to 40
the failure load, is the potential energy required to cause
cracking. In general, this property is suitable for asphalt
30
concrete materials since it is less dependent on the hypothe- 0%NS 2%NS 4%NS 6%NS
ses of the linear elasticity and homogeneity compared to
other fracture characteristics, such as stress intensity factor Fig. 3. Penetration values at different concentrations of NS.
and critical strain energy release rate [41]. This property is
able to consider both stress and strain behavior in one term
60
until the crack initiation for the purpose of fatigue perfor-
mance comparison of asphaltic mixtures [42]. The history
of loading against the vertical deformation was recorded 55

Temperature, Co
and used to calculate the fracture energies of the studied
mixtures. Fracture energy experiments were carried out at
25 °C to conduct a comparative study of the asphalt mix- 50
tures. A schematic representation of stress versus strain
curve is shown in Fig. 2b. The crosshatched area under
the experimental curve (fracture energy) can be mathemat- 45
ically calculated by a best fit equation and integration.
Another set of three specimens for each prepared mix-
40
ture was utilized to perform the split tension fatigue test
0%NS 2%NS 4%NS 6%NS
to evaluate the fatigue life of the aforementioned mixtures.
In the selected fatigue test, the cylindrical Marshall speci- Fig. 4. Softening point values at different concentrations of NS.
men is subjected to a compressive loading distributed along
two opposite 19 mm curved loading strips (Fig. 2c), a con-
dition which generates a relatively uniform tensile stresses
perpendicular to and along the load-line plane. A number 0
0%NS

2%NS

4%NS

6%NS
of researchers (e.g. [43,44]) have carried out this test for -0.2
materials and pavement evaluations. In this study, the
ITS fatigue test was performed using the UTM under the -0.4
controlled-stress/load mode (Fig. 2d) at 25 °C. A sinu-
-0.6
soidal loading was applied on each tested specimen at fre-
PI

quency of 10 Hz, no rest period was considered, and -0.8

constant mean stress level (20% of the calculated ITS).
Multiple criteria are used for determination of the fatigue
life of bituminous mixtures, however, herein, when the
applied load/stress (Fig. 2d) drops sharply (the stress goes
up), i.e. the specimen is no longer withstand loading, the
fatigue life was recorded. The stress ratio, i.e. ratio of min-
imum and maximum applied compressive stress was main-
tained 25% for all fatigue tests.
3. Discussion of results
3.1. Asphalt binders
The effects of the addition of NS on the properties of
asphalt binder are presented in Figs. 3 through 7. It is
worth mentioning that three replicates have been measured
for each binder and for very close results the error bars
-1
-1.2
-1.4
Fig. 5. PI of base binder and NS-modified binder.
have been neglected. At first, as it can be seen, the penetra-
tion values (Fig. 3) decrease with increasing the concentra-
tion of NS, which means increasing the hardness of binder.
The softening point temperature (Fig. 4) increases with the
increase in the NS content; however, the softening point
value of the 6% NS-modified binder is less than that for
the 4% NS-modified binder. This proves the increased
hardness of the binder with the addition of NS to some
extent, and probably the excessive amounts of NS (or
 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157 153

0%NS 2% NS 4%NS 6%NS temperature susceptibility of the asphalt binder has been
10000 adversely affected with the addition of NS, while the PI val-
ues are within the range of 2.0 to +2.0 [47] indicates that
the modified asphalt still can be used for paving. The above
Viscosity, mPa.s

1000 results of the NS-modified binder demonstrate that the NS-

100
10
115 135 155
Temp., Co
Fig. 6. Viscosity of base binder and NS-modified binder.
6%) decrease the homogeneity of silica material which
might decrease the softening point of the whole composite.
The PI is a quantitative measure of the response or suscep-
tibility of an asphalt binder to temperature variation, and
its behavior can be predicted in paving application [45].
The PI values were calculated from the measured penetra-
tions and softening point temperatures. The calculated PI
values are presented in Fig. 5. The value of PI ranging from
around 3 (highly temperature susceptible asphalt) to high
PI asphalts around +7 (highly blown low temperature sus-
ceptible) [45]. In this study the PI has been used to provide
a good approximation of the expected temperature suscep-
tibility behavior of asphalt binders. The lower the PI, the
temperature susceptibility signifies. Asphalt binders with
PIs below 2 are more susceptible to temperature and will
show more brittleness at low temperatures, resulting in
being more prone to thermal cracking [46]. In comparison
with the base binder, the PI values of NS-modified binder
are decreasing in an inconsistent manner with the increase
in the content of the NS. However, this indicates that the
modified binder relatively is less sensitive to temperature
resulting in less low-temperature cracking as well as less
rutting during summer seasons.
The purpose of rotational viscosity test is to examine the
desired fluidity of asphalt during mixing and compaction.
This test can be utilized to measure the viscosity of unmod-
175 195 ified and modified asphalt binders. The rotational viscosi-
ties at a temperature range of 115–195 °C for the base
binder and NS-modified binder at different concentrations
of the NS, shown in Fig. 6. It is clearly shown that the addi-
tion of NS increases the binder’s viscosity. As expected, as
the NS content increases, the viscosity values increase due
to increased surface area and reactivity. The standard in
Superpave specification obligates that viscosity of the used
asphalt binder must not be higher than 3000 mPa s. How-
ever, all the studied binders meet this requirement.
The spectrogram that shows the transmittance response
of base binder and 4% NS-modified binder in the range
4000–400 cm 1 wavenumber, is depicted in Fig. 7. Based
on Konnur et al. [48], the bonds and functional groups
of the binders are shown on the acquired spectra. The
transmittance values at specific wavenumbers referred to
as peaks are inference of the bonds within the material’s
chemical structure. A qualitative analysis of the spectra
of the NS-modified binder compared to the base binder is
based on a relative comparison of the transmittance peaks
characterizing the chemical groups’ indicators. The
decrease in the peaks of the NS-modified binder indicates
an increase in the chemical functional groups of the modi-
fied material. The infrared spectra of the base binder and
4% NS-modified binder show almost identical chemical

110
0%NS 4%NS

100

550–850
90 C–Cl stretch
3619
% Transmittance

1602 O–H stretch, free hydroxyl

alkyl halides, 1030 C–C stretch
S=O stretch alcohols, phenols
80 Sulphoxides Aromatics

70 1456
1376 C–H bend 3383
C–H rock Alkanes N–H stretch
60 Alkanes primary, secondary amines, amides

2921, 2848
50 O–H stretch
carboxylic acids
40
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
Wavenumber, cm-1
Fig. 7. IR Spectra of base binder and 4% NS-modified binder.
154 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157
groups within both the modified and unmodified binders.
However, the addition of NS seems to influence the inten-
sity of the chemical groups of the asphalt binder; therefore,
affects the overall performance of the material. Thus, it can
be concluded that the virgin asphalt binder exhibited a
change in its inter-bonds with the addition of NS material.
3.2. Compacted mixtures
The average resilient modulus of three replicates of the
unmodified and NS-modified mixtures is shown in Fig. 8.
Clearly shown, the addition of NS has a positive effect on
the resilient modulus of the asphalt mixture. The value of
the resilient modulus has increased by increasing the con-
tent of the NS. In consistence with others findings (e.g.
[29]), due to the increased resilient modulus of the NS-
modified mixtures, it is therefore expected that these mix-
tures will exhibit increased elasticity and therefore better
resistance to rutting than the conventional mixture.
800
Resilient Modulus, MPa
700
600
500
400
0%NS 2%NS
Fig. 8. Resilient modulus of compacted mixtures.
-0.04
The curves shown in Figs. 9 and 10 represent the aver-
age values of three ITS tests for each mixture in the dry
and wet conditions versus the resulted vertical and horizon-
tal strains, respectively. For each ITS test, two displace-
ments were recorded and strains were calculated as the
ratio of displacement to specimen diameter. The horizontal
strain (+ve) is shown on the right side of the figure, while
the vertical strain ( ve) is shown on the left side. It is evi-
dent from these figures that NS-modified mixture exhibited
the highest tensile strengths compared to the unmodified
mixture. The ITS of the 4% NS-modified mixture is the
highest. Excessive amounts of NS seem adversely affecting
the ITS of the mixture. This is quite clear from the 6% NS
results. The NS-modified mixtures showed higher strains to
failure in contrast to the unmodified mixture. Mixtures that
can tolerate high strains prior to failure are more likely
resist cracking than the mixture that cannot endure high
strains. The higher strains of the NS-modified mixtures
until failure also infer expected extended creep resistance
and less rutting potential than the unmodified mixture.
The fracture energies of the dry and wet compacted mix-
tures are shown in Fig. 11. The general trend shows that
the higher the NS content up to 4%, the higher the fracture
energies. With much higher NS contents (6%), a slight
decrease in the fracture energies was registered, while still
maintaining higher value than the unmodified mixture.
There is no proof this trend would continue at higher con-
centrations of the NS. The fracture energy decreased after
conditioning the samples due to the loss of mixture
strength in terms of the loss of cohesion and/or the loss
of adhesion in the asphalt-aggregate system. The 4% NS-
modified mixture showed almost same fracture energy after
conditioning.
4%NS 6%NS
As an important design parameter, the asphalt mixtures
should not deteriorate substantially due to the presence or
intrusion of moisture into the mixture. The mixture may be
6 % NS 4 % NS 2500
2% NS 0% NS
2000
Dry ITS, kPa
1500
1000
500
0
-0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0 0.01
Vertical strain, mm/mm Horizontal strain,mm/mm
Fig. 9. Dry ITS versus strain for compacted mixtures.
 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157 155

2500
6 % NS 4 % NS

2% NS 0% NS
2000

Wet ITS, kPa

1500

1000

500

0
-0.03 -0.025 -0.02 -0.015 -0.01 -0.005 0 0.005 0.01
Vertical strain, mm/mm Horizontal strain, mm/mm

Fig. 10. Wet ITS versus strain for compacted mixtures.

40 Dry Wet
Fracture Energy, kJ/m3

30

20

10

0
0%NS 2%NS 4%NS 6%NS

Fig. 11. Fracture energy of dry and wet asphalt specimens.

identified as a moisture susceptible mixture if cohesive and/

or adhesive failures occur within the asphalt-aggregate sys- 100
tem. To examine the susceptibility of moisture damage of
95
the NS-modified mixtures, the TSR values of the mixtures
were calculated and presented in Fig. 12. This figure 90
demonstrates that the NS-modified mixture is less suscepti-
TSR, %

ble to moisture damage (TSR values are higher than 85%) 85

as compared to the unmodified mixture. From Figs. 9 and
80
10, it is clearly seen that the strength of NS-modified mix-
tures is still higher than the unmodified mixtures even after 75
moisture effect. This conclusion agrees with the finding by
Yusoff et al. [11]. 70
Fatigue life, the number of repeated sinusoidal load 0%NS 2%NS 4%NS 6%NS
applications needed to completely fracture each asphaltic Fig. 12. TSR values of compacted mixtures.
specimen in the load-controlled mode is presented in
Fig. 13. This figure indicates that the addition of NS into fatigue-caused cracks. This conclusion is shared with Yao
HMA mixtures improves the fatigue life proportionally et al. [29]. The higher the NS content (6%) has displayed
with the increase in NS content. The higher tensile strength insignificant effects on increasing the fatigue life of the
of the NS-modified mixture increases its fatigue life; mixture. This trend cannot be expected at much higher
therefore, deters the generation and propagation rate of concentrations of the NS. In consistent with the fracture
156 M. Enieb, A. Diab / International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology 10 (2017) 148–157
2400
Fatigue Life (No. of Cycles to failure)
2200
2000
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
0%NS
Fig. 13. Fatigue life of compacted mixtures.
energy results, it is expected that NS-modified mixture can
endure more traffic applications as well as can resist the
propagation of cracks compared to the unmodified
mixture.
4. Summary and concluding remarks
The present study focused on understanding the feasibil-
ity of adding the NS to bituminous pavements based on the
characteristics of asphalt binder and mixture. Physical tests,
including penetration, softening point, and rotational vis-
cosity have been carried out to address the effectiveness of
NS modification on the binder properties. The FTIR tech-
nique was employed to identify the chemical groups in the
unmodified and modified binders to investigate the effect
of modifying the asphalt binder with NS from chemical
bonds point of view. Further, an experimental investigation
has been carried out to characterize the mechanical perfor-
mance of the asphalt mixture modified with NS based on
the resilient modulus, tensile strength, fracture energy, mois-
ture damage evaluation, and fatigue life. Based on the study
findings, the following conclusions have been drawn:
1. Based on the binder physical properties tests, the NS-
modified binder increased the softening point and vis-
cosity, while the penetration grade decreased leading
to stiff and high modulus behavior of the modified bin-
der. Furthermore, the addition of NS did not have obvi-
ous detrimental effects on the temperature susceptibility
of the binder.
2. The infrared spectra indicated that both the unmodified
and NS-modified virgin binders consisted of similar
chemical functional groups and molecular structures.
However, a rough qualitative analysis indicated that
the inclusion of NS into the virgin asphalt binder would
increase the presence of multiple functional groups
which could be related to different physical properties.
3. It has been observed that the addition of NS increased
the resilient modulus, split tensile strength, the fracture
energy and fatigue life, and decreased the moisture sus-
ceptibility of the mixtures, thus would help construct
more durable pavement.
4. As the NS can be produced at low cost, therefore, it is
expected to reduce life-cycle costs of bituminous pave-
ments in light of the distinct characteristics proved in
this study.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Aswan and Assiut
Universities, Egypt, for providing the materials and facili-
ties that helped in conducting this work.
2%NS 4%NS 6%NS
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