The research was performed to understand how physical hardening to Crack Sealing Machine performance efficiency is affected by parameters such as temperature, conditioning time, modification, thermal history, and glass transition temperature, and to propose a comprehensive model in which the physical hardening of asphalt binders can be predicted for different conditions without lengthy tests.
The tests performed in this study were combined with experimental data from previous studies to enable a broad analysis of the nature of physical hardening in asphalt binders and to propose a model of Crack Sealing Machine.
It was found that physical hardening in asphalt binders results in significant changes in their creep response at temperature below or near the glass transition. Also the Crack Sealing Machine working efficiency rate of physical hardening decrease rapidly with is othermal age and it is highly dependent on conditioning temperature and the source of the base binder. Different types of polymer modification did not significantly change the rate of physical hardening. This was explained as being the result of the two-phase nature of polymer modified binders, in which the hardening behavior of the base binder phase is dominant.
