Evaluación de la correlación de la pérdida de masa (ensayo cantabro) y parámetros mecánicos de una mezcla asfáltica densa en caliente (mdc-19) - fase 1: envejecimiento a corto y largo plazo

Abstract

The increase in maximum vehicle weight limits (Chew, Hamzah, Hasan, Jamshidi, & Yang, 2019), high traffic volumes (Liu, Liu, Zhu, & Zhang, 2024), the channeling of transport flows, increased tire inflation pressures (Taghipoor, Hassani, & Karimi, 2024), the rise in temperature gradients in recent years, and the low traffic speeds associated with congestion, among other factors, have led to greater deterioration of flexible pavement structures. Consequently, cities face higher road maintenance costs due to the increased frequency of maintenance cycles that must be carried out by the public entities responsible for the infrastructure. In the city of Bogotá D.C., for example, flexible pavements are the most affected, as they constitute the predominant structural type (Prasad, Saboo, & Pani, 2023), and more than 65% of the road network is built using this system (Rondón Quintana & Reyes Lizcano, 2022). This situation has forced the Institute of Urban Development (IDU), the Special Administrative Unit for Road Rehabilitation and Maintenance (UAERMV), and the local mayoral offices to carry out frequent interventions in order to preserve the serviceability of the road corridors In this context, and considering the vast amount of flexible pavement constructed, it is essential to have practical, simple, and low-cost laboratory tests available to characterize the durability and performance of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). From a material standpoint, asphalt mixtures are exposed to climatic conditions that favor oxidation and aging processes in their components (Saleh et al., 2020). The aging of asphalt cement (AC), as a fundamental element of HMA, is one of the main factors that accelerate the appearance of damage and reduce the pavement's service life (Loría Salazar, Cuadrado Valbuena, Villegas Villegas, & Castillo Camarena, 2018), because it modifies its rheological properties, increasing the binder's stiffness and brittleness. These changes deteriorate the cohesive bonds of the binder and the adhesive bonds between the binder and the aggregates, weakening the internal integrity of the mixture. Under the action of cyclic loads associated with traffic, these joints are subjected to repeated stresses that promote the initiation and propagation of cracks and the progressive disintegration of the material, compromising the structural capacity of the pavement. Consequently, the durability of pavement structures is directly related to the resistance to aging and the mechanical stability of the asphalt mixtures