Comparación del diseño MARSHALL con el diseño balanceado de una mezcla asfáltica caliente.

Abstract

A very common problem in Ecuador is the cracking of pavements, which undergo processes in which they develop failures due to the effects of heavy traffic loads, environmental conditions, and sometimes inadequate maintenance, among other factors. However, despite the fact that the Ministry of Transport and Public Works has controls and regulations stipulated in its current technical specifications to solve these problems, these are insufficient. Contemplating this, in the present degree work the Marshall Design will be compared versus the Balanced Mixture Design (BMD), to study their procedures, analyzing the effect of the variation of asphalt percentages for these two methodologies and finally issuing recommendations regarding which is the most effective method design that should be implemented in the country. According to the methodology of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), as a result it could be observed that, in the balanced zone, which is an allowable threshold of the asphalt content that satisfies both criteria, between the limits of cracking and rutting, it was lower than the compliance range of all the properties determined by the Marshall method, from 6.10 to 6.30%. In the same way, the optimal values obtained were different, 6.00% for the TTI and 6.20% for the Marshall design, however, in the present titling work the requirements of the conditions of their country of origin were contemplated, for which reason it is concluded that these results must be adjusted to the requirements of the respective geographic regions of Ecuador, in order to have another outlook on the durability of asphalt pavements, and together with a growing awareness of the deficiencies of the volumetric mix design systems, lead the asphalt pavement industry to explore the use of Balanced Design as a new approach to asphalt mix design, thus furthering their research.