Laboratory Evaluation of Anti-Strip Additives in Hot Mix Asphalt

The use of hydrated lime or other liquid anti-stripping agents (ASA) is the most common method to improve the moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixes. However, most laboratory test conditions used to evaluate the moisture susceptibility of the mixes are only for a short duration of time. This might not be a good representation of the field conditions (i.e., several months or years of service). Thus, a study to evaluate the effects of conditioning the mixes for longer durations was initiated. Also, another problem with the use of the liquid anti-stripping agents is their heat storage stability. This report addresses these two issues, by preparing and testing mixtures made with fresh binder for indirect tensile strength after conditioning the samples for 1, 7, 28, 90 and 180 days, and samples prepared from binder stored for three days at 160° C after conditioning them for 1, 28 and 90 days. The results of this study indicated that hydrated lime and the liquid anti-stripping agents were equally effective for the mixes used in this research when conditioned beyond one day. In the case of samples prepared from stored binder, there was no significant difference in the effectiveness of hydrated lime and the liquid anti-stripping agents even after conditioning for one day. Though it was observed that none of the ASA treatments performed better than others in the case of samples prepared with stored binder, it was also observed that almost all mixes gave significantly similar wet ITS and TSR values as samples prepared from fresh binder.