Home > Published Issues > 2017 > Volume 6, No. 3, August 2017 >

Sulfur-Asphalt Site Construction Trial in Kuwait

Salah E. Zoorob and Suad K. Al-Bahar
Construction & Building Materials Program, Energy & Building Research Centre, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Abstract—A full scale trial into the use of sulfur-extended hot mix asphalt was carried out on a full depth 2 lane access road South of Kuwait City in June 2015. The road is composed of wearing, binder and base course hot mix asphalt layers all in compliance with Ministry of Public Works mix gradation specifications. Four binder types were assessed; 60/70pen grade Kuwaiti bitumen, 2% EVA polymer modified binder, 60/70pen modified with locally produced sulfur and 60/70pen modified with Shell Thiopave pellets. The trial road was divided into six longitudinal sections to facilitate direct comparison of the performance of the various binders types. Full depth cores were extracted for testing from each of the six sections soon after the completion of construction and after 1 year of opening to traffic. The paper includes details of the site layout, granular subbase and asphalt compaction, variation in asphalt mix density and voids, indirect tensile stiffness determinations, moisture conditioning and wheel tracking tests. Overall, both sulfur extended asphalt mixes performed better than the conventional 60/70pen mix, in particular with respect to stiffness and creep performance. Significantly, compared to the 60/70pen mix, the sulfur-extended mixes ageing with time could not be explained entirely by environmental exposure related oxidative hardening mechanisms. 

Index Terms—hot mix asphalt, sulfur-extender, thiopave, full scale site construction

Cite: Salah E. Zoorob and Suad K. Al-Bahar, "Sulfur-Asphalt Site Construction Trial in Kuwait," International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 190-198, August 2017. doi: 10.18178/ijscer.6.3.190-198