Fundamental Approaches to Predict Moisture Damage in Asphalt Mixtures: State-of-the-Art Review

Moisture susceptibility is still one of the primary causes of distress in flexible pavements, reducing the pavements’ durability. A very large number of tests are available to evaluate the susceptibility of a binder aggregate combination. Tests can be conducted on the asphalt mixture, either in a loose or compacted form, or on the individual components of an asphalt pavement. Apart from various mechanisms and models, fundamental concepts have been proposed to calculate the thermodynamic tendency of a binder aggregate combination to adhere and/or debond under wet conditions. The aim of this review is to summarize literature findings and conclusions, regarding these concepts as carried out in the CEDR project FunDBits. The applied test methods, the obtained results, and the validation or predictability of these fundamental approaches are discussed.