Resources

Foamed bitumen stabilisation is gaining wide acceptance internationally for pavement stabilisation, but has not been practised in New Zealand. This report is of a preliminary experimental study, carried out in 2002, to investigate its feasibility and potential applications in this country.

Part I presents a review of the literature (up to 2002) on the use of the foamed bitumen process for pavement stabilisation. The review covers topics related to methods of foamed bitumen characterisation, testing methods, engineering properties, design of foamed bitumen mixes, and recent field applications of the stabilisation technique.

Part II consists of preliminary experimental work carried out to explore the feasibility of using the technique in New Zealand. The foaming characteristics of two grades of bitumen from two sources currently in use in New Zealand and the resilient moduli of mixes made using a modified AP-20 gradation aggregate are compared.

Keywords: asphalt, bitumen, cement, compaction, foam, foamed bitumen, foam mixes, gradation curves, mixing, New Zealand, pavement, performance, road, stabilisation, water content