Experimental Characterization of Rutting Performance of HMA Designed with Aggregate Gradations According to Superpave and Marshall Methods

The permanent deformation (rutting) of pavement is a major distress in flexible pavement. It is related to vehicles properties and/or pavement materials and conditions. This article presents an extensive experimental investigation in order to compare between the aggregate gradation according to Superpave and Marshall methods of asphalt concrete mix design on pavement rutting and to examine the sensitivity of rutting resistance to aggregate gradation. A wheel truck machine has been used for measurement of pavement rutting (permanent deformation). The tests were carried out at two controlled different air temperature 55℃ and 25℃. The results obtained showed that the adopting of aggregate gradation procedure of Superpave method of pavement mix design for Marshall method of asphalt concrete mix design can reduce the pavement rutting by about 50%. This achievement may be related to missing of three sieves in aggregate gradation procedure of Marshall method which controls rounded and finer aggregate particles. These sieves provide more continuity for aggregate gradation to ensure filling unnecessary gaps and produce more contact points between the aggregates in Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). The outputs of the research support modifying Marshall method of asphalt concrete mix design by adopting aggregate gradation proposed in Superpave method. The results of study also showed that the coarser aggregate provided more resistance to pavement rutting.