A New Model on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Asphalt Mixtures

10.6135/ijprt.org.tw/2013.6(5).488

J. Norambuena-Contreras；E. Asanza Izquierdo；D. Castro-Fresno；Manfred N. Partl；Álvaro Garcia

Air void content ； Asphalt mixture ； Hydraulic conductivity ； Water flow

International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology

6卷5期（2013 / 09 / 01）

488 - 495

英文

It is well known that asphalt mixtures with different air void contents will present different drainage capacity, but until now there is not a model that evaluates its water infiltration capacity considering its air void content value. For this reason, a new model to predict the hydraulic conductivity (permeability) of asphalt mixtures as a function of its air void content has been proposed in this paper. Additionally, this paper presents the laboratory results and procedures used to measure the hydraulic conductivity of asphalt mixtures with a wide range of air void content. With this purpose, four types of asphalt mixtures with different aggregate distribution (dense, semidense, discontinuous and porous), amounts of bitumen (from 4.5 to 5.2%) and air void content (from 4 to 20%), have been tested. The average hydraulic conductivity of the asphalt mixtures analyzed ranged from 5.2×10^(-6) to 3.0×10^(-2) cm/s. Besides, it has been found that the hydraulic conductivity model is valid for all ranges of air void content existing in the compacted asphalt mixture. In addition, the model has been checked through experimental and literature data, presenting a good fit to data. Therefore, the results of this study can be used as reference values of the hydraulic conductivity of asphalt mixtures used in the road pavement construction.