Experimental Characterization of High Performance WAM-Foam Trial Sections

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of using warm asphalt mixes for high performance pavements on the basis of a complete mixture characterization. In this work WAM Foam technology is studied by introducing a soft binder and a hard foamed bitumen at different stages during mixing. This results in lower production temperatures which is beneficial both in terms of energy consumption and air emissions. By proper selection of the two binders, a high-performance mixture was produced (Greenfalt®) which was used on a heavy trafficked high-speed road in Italy. The paper describes results of tests that were carried out on laboratory and field compacted specimens taken from experimental trial sections as well as results of Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) tests carried out on the same sections. The results show good performance in terms of stiffness, fatigue life and resistance to permanent deformation.