Influence of Warm Mix Asphalt Additive on Temperature Susceptibility of Asphalt Binders

Warm mix asphalt (WMA) has been gaining increasing popularity in recent years due to energy savings and environmental benefits. The mechanism of WMA is to use some additives or technologies to modify the rheological behavior of asphalt binders, and thus improve the workability of the mixture at lower temperature. Therefore, it is important to understand the temperature susceptibility of asphalt binders. In this paper, the effects of Sasobit on temperature susceptibility of asphalt binders were investigated by penetration test and viscosity test. And penetration index (PI), viscosity-temperature susceptibility (VTS) and penetration-viscosity numbers (PVN) were introduced to evaluate the effects. The results show that the PI and PVN of asphalt binder increase with the increase of Sasobit content. This means that the addition of Sasobit can make the asphalt less temperature susceptibility in the range from 15°C to 60°C. From the point of VTS, the addition of Sasobit can make the asphalt more temperature susceptibility range from 60°C to 135°C, especially at high content. Its special temperature susceptibility properties enable it to be used as warm mix asphalt additive.