Kraton says modified asphalt shows exceptional performance

ERJ staff report (DS)

Houston, Texas - Kraton says the results of an industry-standard test for highway longevity proves its materials improve highway life.

Kraton worked with the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) on a project called The NCAT Pavement Test Track project. This tested and compared the performance of Kraton HiMA technology against competing asphalt pavement technologies.

Kraton Polymers sponsored a section of the NCAT facility to determine if a highly modified binder using its HiMA technology could reduce the total pavement thickness and still achieve adequate and even superior performance. Kraton kept the same gradation and mix design and simply replaced the binder, which gave the Kraton section a total thickness of 5 3/4 inches versus seven inches (18 percent reduction in thickness) from the control section.

"Even though there is no cracking to date, NCAT has conducted an analysis based on actual pavement strain and back calculated modulus data along with laboratory fatigue tests," said Bob Kluttz, Sr. Scientist, Research and Development at Kraton Polymers. "The analysis shows many times the fatigue life of the control indicating that our thinner section may significantly outperform the control in bottom up fatigue cracking as well. At the end of the 2009-2011 trafficking cycle the average rut depth of section N7 was 2.2 mm versus 7.1 mm for the control section S9," he concluded.

This is an external link and should open in a new window. If the window does not appear, please check your pop-up blocking software. ERJ is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Press release from Kraton