Investigating Effects of Application of Silica Fume to Reduce Asphalt Oxidative Aging

• Published in: American journal of engineering and applied sciences Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 176 - 184
• Main Authors: Abutalib, Nader, Fini, Elham H., Aflaki, Sassan, Abu-Lebdeh, Taher M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2015
• Subjects: Agglomeration; Asphalt; Binders; Feasibility; Polarity; Rheological properties; Silica fume; Surface area
• ISSN: 1941-7020; 1941-7039
• DOI: 10.3844/ajeassp.2015.176.184

This paper investigates the feasibility of using silica fume to enhance the rheological properties of asphalt binder. This paper studies effectiveness of using silica fume to reduce asphalt oxidative aging while alleviating agglomeration issue. To do so, various percentages of silica fume was introduced to a base asphalt binders and the rheological properties and high temperature performance of each specimen was evaluated by measuring the rotational viscosity and complex shear modulus before and after oxidative aging. Analysis of the experimental results showed that silica fume reduced asphalt aging index significantly; in addition the temperature susceptibility of asphalt binder was reduced as the percentage of silica fume increased. The flow of modified mixtures increased and the loss of stability of samples decreased as the amount of silica fume increased. The positive effect of silica fume on base asphalt's rheological properties could be attributed to the high surface area and the low degree of agglomeration of the silica fume due to their high polarity.