ASPHALT RHEOLOGY: EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF DYNAMIC MODULI AT LOW TEMPERATURE

One of the important factors in pavement design is the viscoelastic nature of asphalt. The study uses the term viscoelasticity to mean the mechanical properties of asphalt that at low temperature have the ability to resist shrinkage and rutting at high temperature. The low temperature rheology of asphalt relates to the problem of thermal cracking where the high viscosity of the binder effectively prevents the relief of stresses that develop during the pavement cooling. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of the Rheometrics Mechanical Spectrometer (RMS) that can make accurate low temperature dynamic viscoelastic measurements on asphalt.