warm mixes with bitumen emulsion

Lucia Miranda Pérez
ATEB
Jacinto Luis Santiago
Working group coordinator Temperate Mixed
ATEB
Nuria Uguet
President
ATEB
Daniel Andaluz
Manager
ATEB
Mª Del Mar Colás Victoria
Technical director
ATEB
Francisco José Lucas
Coordinator of Communication
ATEB
Santiago Gil
Coordinating security group
ATEB

ABSTRACT

Today we can say that the 90% of road pavements run using bituminous mixtures, defined as the combination of aggregates with a bituminous material, leading to a conglomerate whose behavior allows both a structure (when speaking of basis and interlayers) and a tread that ensures adequate to stresses traffic performance in every circumstance.

The type of bituminous material used corresponds to the hot mix asphalt, then followed by cold mixes.

Hot mixes, manufactured at temperatures above 150 ° C, allow the housing of aggregates and their placing. This versatility makes your application is suitable for any type of traffic and conditions, limiting its action to a particular radio unit manufacturing facilities.

As for cold mixes, more limited application due to the particularity of the art to obtain their final properties when it finishes its maturation process, and the need to require a cure time before opening traffic, they have also limited their application. However such mixtures has the advantage use at room temperature, which contributes to improving the environmental aspects within the construction process.

Recently, and taking into account the positive aspects that both types of mixtures present, an interest in a type of mixtures called “temperate mixtures” has been manifested in several countries, and especially in Spain, (known in English as HWMA “halfwarm mix asphalt ”and in French as“ enrobéssemi-tièdés ”), whose main characteristic is that it is a bituminous material manufactured at a temperature below 100 ºC. In this way, it becomes a type of intermediate material between hot mixes and cold mixes, making it possible to achieve similar performance to hot mixes and, on the other hand, taking advantage of the environmental advantages that cold mixes provide.

There are several techniques that have been developed for the manufacture of mixtures as temperate foam bitumen or mixtures temperate emulsion. The latter are referred to this article.