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Engineering the Properties of Asphalt Mixtures Using Carbon Nanotubes

Project Summary

Traditional polymer modified binders are typically used to achieve a target performance grade (PG) and also to enhance resistance of the binder to distresses, such as rutting, fatigue cracking, and low-temperature cracking. Conventional modifiers used with asphalt binders are often expensive and are not very effective to improve the low-temperature properties.

Recent advances in nanotechnology have allowed for the development of novel materials that can be tailored to deliver improvements in both high and low-temperature properties of the modified composite. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the most promising classes of materials to show reduced rutting at high temperatures. However, simultaneous improvements in low-temperature properties can only be achieved if the CNTs are surface modified to effectively disperse in the binder and break the viscosity building molecular associations at low temperatures. The research team will evaluate an innovative and novel method to deliver CNTs into the binder via water, used in the production of foamed WMA.

Project Number

0-6854

Status

Completed

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