General Description

Asphalt mixtures is one of the main fields of activity of the Transport Studies Centre, with the aim to become a reference institution within this area at national level, comparable to the best european organisations. The main working objectives are:

• To develop a complete set of asphalt mixtures test standards.
• To hold all the facilities needed to perform all the tests covered by the national standards, and promote the use of fundamental tests through the development of dynamic tests.
• To follow and contribute to the development of CEN standards and equip the laboratory with the facilities needed to perform the specified tests.

The laboratory owns a full range of equipment to perform the design and analysis of asphalt mixtures of all kinds. The following fields are specially covered:

• Empirical tests for porous and open graded mixtures (CKE specific surface test, Cantabro test, in dry and wet conditions), and for mastic type mixtures (Hubbard-Field and indentation tests).
• Empirical tests for dense, semidense and coarse asphalt concrete type mixtures: volumetric analysis, Marshall test, soaked compression, laboratory test track, indirect tensile strength tests, gyratory compactors for plastic flow and mixture compactibility characterization, etc.
• Asphalt mixtures binder content determination, through automatic centrifugal or rotary evaporator extractors and ignition furnace.
• Asphalt mixtures fundamental performance tests: dynamic stiffness modulus (compression or bending), dynamic creep, reflective cracking, fatigue (bending or indirect tensile).

In the last few years special attention has been paid to the development of the American SHRP research program, and two devices have been purchased looking forward to their implementation in Spain: the gyratory compactor for specimen preparation and compactability analysis, and the ignition furnace for rapid binder content determination, in view of the partial eradication of solvent use for this purpose.