Experimental Evaluation of the Effect of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate-Montmorillonite Nanocomposite on Fatigue and Rutting Behavior of Asphalt Mixture

Asphalt pavements are one of the most widely constituents utilized to pave highway pavement which experience various failures during their lifetime, such as rutting, fatigue and thermal cracking. Therefore it should be used to improve the bitumen performance by addition of modifiers such as polymers and Nano Clays (NC). Among the various additives used to improve the bitumen performance, Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) is one of the most useful and effective materials for paving. In this study, the rheological behavior of bitumen and rutting and fatigue behavior of mixture containing EVA/Nanoclay and EVA latex were evaluated. EVA/NC and EVA latex were made and mixed with bitumen. Results of storage stability test shown that EVA/NC-modified bitumen is steadier than EVA-latex-modified bitumen. The results of the fatigue test of the mixtures showed that the asphalt mixtures made of bitumen modified with nanocomposite are more resistant to fatigue than bitumen modified with EVA polymer. The results showed that the addition of 6% EVA/NC and 6% EVA increased the fatigue life by 43% and 20%, respectively. The results of the rutting resistance tests showed that the rutting resistance of the samples increased with the increase of EVA polymer. Also, the addition of montmorillonite increased the resistance of polymer mixtures against rutting.