The Effect of Additives on Water Vapor Condensation on Bituminous Surfaces.

Water condensation and freezing on asphalt roads can lead to slippery conditions, which are responsible for many winter accidents and have caused an overreliance on mostly environmentally damaging and pavement degrading deicing chemicals and salt, which requires active maintenance. Bitumen is a mechanically and chemically complex material mainly consisting of various hydrocarbon-based chemicals groups. Additionally, bitumen makes up approximately 5 wt.% of the asphalt concrete mixture because of its binder role and coating function of the aggregates, can control the bulk mechanical properties and surface properties of the asphalt mixture. Condensation as the first step and later freezing phenomena are investigated in this study and from ambient humidity toward understanding the fundamentals of icing on bituminous surfaces. Condensation experimental results show selective wettability of chemically and mechanically district bitumen surface domains. The effect of different bitumen modifiers of polyethylene terephthalate, polyamide (PA 66), polyacrylonitrile, and Sasobit wax at 1 wt.% were studied on condensation freezing and bitumen water affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]