Pamukkale Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi

Öz

Today,
the production of asphalt has increased with the increase in demand for highway
network. However, due to harmful effects of asphalt production on the nature,
researchers have tried to explore new kinds of asphalt that are
environmentally-conscious, cost lower production and that exhibit at least the
same performance of conventional ASPHALT in terms of properties. The main
objective of using warm mix asphalt (WMA) is to reduce emissions and improve
the workability by lowering the mixing and compaction temperatures of ASPHALT
through different mechanisms. Recent advances in WMA have spurred interests in
the use of organic commercial waxes such as Sasobit®, Asphaltan B® as well as
synthetic zeolite such as Advera® WMA and Aspha-min® as additives in bitumen to
achieve certain positive effects. There are over 50 billion tons of high
quality natural zeolite reserves in Turkey. This means that natural zeolite can
be utilized in the production of warm mix asphalt. This study targets the
evaluation of clinoptilolite type natural zeolite as a warm mix additive. The
bitumen samples have been produced by mixing 50/70 penetration grade base
bitumen with clinoptilolite at five different contents. After determining the
production temperature and time related to each sample, the properties have
been evaluated by conventional bitumen tests. The impact of the reduction of
mixing and compaction temperatures on the mechanical behavior of asphalt
concrete samples involving clinoptilolite has also been determined and compared
with the control samples.