ABSTRACT
Cold mix asphalt (CMA) has been increasingly recognized as an important alternative technology to hot mix asphalt (HMA) worldwide. The present study investigates the optimum proportions of fine content (FC) and emulsion content (EC) to gain suitable levels of both mechanical and volumetric properties. A factorial design with response surface method (RSM) was applied to optimize the mix design parameters. This work aimed to investigate the interaction effect between these parameters on the mechanical and volumetric properties. The stability and indirect tensile strength (ITS) tests were performed to obtain the mechanical response. The results indicate that the interaction of both FC and EC influences the bulk density. However, the EC tended to influence the ITS more significantly than FC. Further, the experimental results for the optimum mix design were in agreement with model predictions. It is found that optimization using RSM is an effective approach for mix design of CMA.
