From Laboratory Design to Field Performance: A Self-Compacting Warm Mix Asphalt for Localized Pavement Maintenance

The mechanical compaction required for conventional warm mix asphalt (WMA) can be difficult to achieve in confined areas and during local bituminous pavement repairs. In this study, a self-compacting warm mix asphalt (SC-WMA) was developed without external compaction using EM1 (Evotherm M1), SBS (styrene–butadiene–styrene), CF (cellulose fiber), and HL (hydrated lime). Four test mixtures were fabricated with varying modifier contents and compared using Marshall, rotational viscosity, and an adapted spread test to identify the best-performing SC-WMA mixture. The SC-WMA3 mix turned out to be the most suitable mixture based on the selected design criteria. It achieved a Marshall stability of 20.2 kN, bulk density of 2.381 g/cm³, optimum binder content of 5.9%, rotational viscosity of 0.600 Pa·s, and an average spread diameter of 265 mm. These results indicated that the mixture had sufficient workability to provide good stability in shape without grade segregation or binder drainage. The Hamburg Wheel Tracking Test (HWTT) was used to evaluate the performance of the adopted SC-WMA mixture in comparison with the conventional WMA mixture. The measured rut depth was 7.48 mm after 20,000 wheel passes, compared with 7.12 mm for conventional WMA. Preliminary application observations were conducted on pothole repairs, pavement crack repairs, and raveled surface repairs to verify the practical applicability of the developed SC-WMA3. In addition, the repaired areas remained stable after 30 days of traffic exposure, providing short-term field observations without mechanical compaction and supporting the suitability of this mixture for localized pavement maintenance.