Economical and technical comparison of using HMA and SMA asphalt mixture with Analytical Hierarchy Process

Flexible pavements are used a lot more in the road construction than the other types. The various types of flexible pavements with different applications and different costs are in the competition. The HMA and SMA pavements are included in this category. In this study, using the method of consolidate evaluation of quantitative and qualitative criteria which are relying on multi criteria decision models, required modeling for study of this asphalt has been done. In this study, economic and technical criteria of both asphalts through field study and laboratory study are shown and then using the AHP method which is a type of multi criteria decision, appropriate asphalt is chosen. Comparison chart of safety, technical and economical indexes of asphalt with suing of experiment result and expert opinion is provided. The results show the SMA asphalt with higher economic costs have better quality and suggested for replacing the HMA asphalt.