Evaluation of Indirect Tensile Strength of an Experimental Highway Section Containing Additives

Abstract

Many researchers tried to improve asphalt mixtures by substituting small amounts of binder with additives to decrease distress. Since highway pavements are usually subjected to various types of distress due to exposed to high traffic volume and environmental factors. One of the most popular additions in several states is SBS. In recent years, an experimental section within the Basra-Baghdad expressway within Al-Diwaniyah province has been paved using SBS with a length of 1.2 km with different SBS percentages. This paper examines the indirect tensile strength (ITS) of the layers of pavements for sample cores taken from these sections within Al-Diwaniyah. This represents the first local experimental work for the evaluation of using additives for asphalt pavements out of laboratory conditions. So far, the results indicated a substantial increase. The ITS results have been increased by about 25% with an SBS of 6% compared with the case of no additives. Further research work will be followed to examine the rutting resistance for samples taken from the same sites and the tensile strength ratio (TSR).