performance evaluation of carbon nanotubes as a binder modifier for asphalt mixtures

The objective of this paper was to investigate the effect of carbon nanotubes (cnts) as binder modifier on the rutting and cracking performances of asphalt mixtures. for this purpose, the different cnts contents (0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25 wt%) were added into the conventional asphalt binder. the marshall stability (ms), indirect tensile (idt), static modulus (sm), wheel tracking (wt) test, and semi-circular bending (scb) fracture tests were conducted to evaluate the performance resistance of cnts-modified asphalt binder for hot mix asphalt (hma) mixtures. the results indicated that the addition of cnts increased rutting resistance at high temperature and cracking resistance at intermediate temperature significantly. in addition, it was found from scb test that the strain energy release rate (jc) of 0.1% cnts content was 16% higher than that of the control mixture. finally, based on the results of the laboratory test and the construction cost analysis, it can be concluded that an optimum cnts content of 0.1% by asphalt weight may be used as additive for asphalt binder in asphalt mixtures