Laboratory Evaluation Of The Effects Of Alternate Burner Fuel On HMA Mixtures

Abstract

This report presents a summary of the laboratory evaluation that was conducted on the hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures placed in October, 2009 on the shoulder of Contract 3376 on I-80 near Rye Patch in Pershing County, Nevada. The evaluation included mixtures produced using conventional No. 2 diesel and the alternate burner fuel supplied by Bango Oil Company used as the burner fuel in the plant during production. The mixtures were placed along the shoulders rather than in traffic areas. Samples were obtained during paving and brought to the laboratory for the evaluation testing. The testing generally followed the current state of practice for material characterization following the 2002 Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) (1). These procedures utilize the dynamic modulus (|E*|) to assess the mixture stiffness, repeated load triaxial (RLT) to assess rutting, as well as flexural beam fatigue testing to assess the fatigue cracking properties of the mixtures.