Influence of Hydrated Lime on the Properties and Permanent Deformation of the Asphalt Concrete Layers in Pavement

Flexible or asphalt concrete pavement is the paving system most widely adopted all over the world. It has been recognized that there are many different types of the factors affecting the performance and durability of asphalt concrete pavement, including the service conditions, such as: the variation of temperature from mild to extremes and the repeated excessive axle loading as well as the inadequate quality of the raw materials. All of these when combined together are going to accelerate the occurrence of distresses in flexible pavement such as permanent deformation and fatigue cracking. As the result, there has an urgent need to enhance the ability of asphalt concrete mixture to resist distresses happened in pavement. Use of additives is one of the techniques adopted to improve pavement properties. It has been found that hydrated lime might be one of the effective additives because it is widely available and relatively cheap compared to other modifiers like polymers. This paper presents an experimental study of the hydrated-lime modified asphalt concrete mixtures. Five different percentages of the hydrated lime additive were investigated, namely (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 percent). The hydrated lime additive was used as partial replacement of limestone filler by total weight of the aggregate. The designed Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) concretes are for the application of three pavement courses, i.e. Surface, Leveling and Base. These mixtures are designed and tested following Marshall procedure and uniaxial repeated loading to evaluate permanent deformation at different temperatures of 20°C, 40°C and 60°C. The experimental results show that the addition of hydrated lime as a partial replacement of ordinary limestone mineral filler results a significant improvement on mechanical properties and the resistant to permanent deformation of the designed asphalt concrete mixtures.