Design of cold asphalt concrete with experimental emulsion by magnetic induction

In this research, a cold asphalt concrete with asphalt emulsion has been developed, which has a structure and mechanical performance equivalent to hot asphalt concrete. The novel asphalt concrete is composed of a new asphalt emulsion and a magnetic industrial by-product, mixed at room temperature, without the need to pre-heat the binder or aggregates. The key to this technology is the use of magnetic induction, which allows the water present in the emulsions to evaporate quickly, facilitating the compaction and curing of the mixture. In order to make a holistic evaluation of the performance of this new "cold" asphalt concrete, rheological and mechanical tests were carried out. The rheological evaluation included tests such as Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR), Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS), Binder Yield Energy Test and DSR-Elastic Recovery. The mechanical evaluation included tests such as Marshall Test, Water sensitivity test, Wheel Tracking Test and particle loss test in dry and wet conditions. Regarding the results, cold asphalt concrete presents a mechanical behaviour equivalent to traditional hot asphalt concrete with conventional B50/70, eliminating the need to heat aggregates or binders during the mixing. This represents a significant optimisation of resources and production times.