Validation of Adhesive and Temperature Property Characteristics of Microsurfacing by Performance-Based Mixture Design Approach

Performance-based mixture design of microsurfacing offers a promising solution to the best application of asphalt emulsions. The presented study investigated a novel approach to evaluate the spalling resistance and high and low-temperature resistance of microsurfacing. The laboratory tests, including mixture bond strength (MBS), driving wheel pavement analyzer (DWPA), multi-stress creep recovery (MSCR), load wheel rutting (LWR), and single edge notch beam (SENB) were conducted to characterize the performance-related properties; the response surface method (RSM) was used to obtain the optimal proportions of the mixture. According to the experimental results, the performance-based mixture design method improves the comprehensive performance of microsurfacing, such as adhesion at high and low temperatures. The results of RSM show that temperature is the most important factor that affects the adhesion of mixture. There is a strong correlation between adhesive and temperature performance detected by different test methods. Due to different chemical mechanisms caused by cement and emulsified asphalt, the high-temperature performance index of the microsurfacing mixture is lower than that of HMA. Furthermore, the low-temperature resistance is analyzed and suggested indicator is proposed.