Bonding Property of Bituminous Crack Sealants in the Presence of Water

Abstract

Problem statement: Crack sealing and filling is the most widely used maintenance activity for in-service pavements. If an appropriate sealant material is selected and properly installed at the appropriate time of the pavement life, it retards pavement deterioration and increases its service life at a relatively low cost. However, in some cases it is reported that sealants failed prematurely, mainly due to environmental factors and water exposure. While there have been several studies on environmental factors, water related factors has not received appropriate attention. Nevertheless, various sealants have different water resistance property; hence, they perform differently when exposed to large amount of rain and humidity. Approach: Currently, there is no standard test method to evaluate sealant water resistance. Therefore, there is a need for a standard test method to precisely predict sealant performance when exposed to water. Such a test method can help examine various sealants in terms of their water resistance. This study introduces water conditioning procedure and a test method to measure bond strength of sealant under dry and wet condition. The effect of water on the Interfacial Fracture Energy (IFE) of bituminous sealants was measured by means of a blister test. This test allows the calculations of two fundamental parameters: tensile modulus and the Interfacial Fracture Energy (IFE). Results: Experimental results showed water exposure caused a significant drop in adhesion strength. However, no significant difference was observed between adhesion strength of specimens conditioned for 8 and 12 h of conditioning. Conclusion/Recommendations: The proposed approach and testing method can be used by the sealant manufacturers to improve their sealants’ adhesion properties at the presence of water. However, further research works are needed to examine how sealant adhesion strength varies with water exposure duration. Also, the effect of water pH on sealant adhesion strength can be studied.