Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair

John P. Zaniewski.

Abstract

During the fifty years between 1940 and 1990, the nation's bituminous roadways were predominantly designed using either the Marshall or Hveem method. The Superior Performing Asphalt Pavements (Superpave)(TM) method was later developed to address the issues of increased traffic volumes and heavier loads on the nation's roadways. This new mix design process relies on volumetric calculations and graphs, which are cumbersome to perform by hand. There is no current public domain Superpave software package available which is independent of any commercial laboratory product and available to an asphalt mix designer. A component of this research project consisted of creating a generic Superpave mix design program that can be utilized by anyone, regardless of the laboratory equipment used for testing.;The goal of this research is to create a fully functional software package to automate the entire Superpave mix design process. The program was then used to design asphalt mixes made of steel slag obtained from International Mill Service, Inc. (IMS) as the only aggregate type. Steel slag aggregate offers a cost effective alternative to conventional aggregates used in asphalt mixes. Various mix designs were created, using only steel slag, in an attempt to meet all volumetric requirements. The steel slag mix performance was then evaluated with respect to rutting. These results were compared to mixes created with limestone and other natural aggregates to determine performance of the software and feasibility of slag utilization.

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