Transport infrastructures such as roads are assets for the society as they not only ensure mobility but also strengthen society’s economy. Considerable amount of energy and materials, that include bitumen, aggregates and asphalt, are required to build and maintain roads. Improper utilization of energy and/or use of materials may lead to more waste and higher costs. The impact on the environment cannot be neglected either. Life cycle assessment (LCA) as a method can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a road system over its entire life time. Studying the life cycle perspective of roads can help us improve the technology in order to achieve a system that has a lower impact on the environment. There are number of LCA tools available. However, implementation of such tools is still unseen in real road projects. This clearly indicates that there are gaps which are needed to be filled in order to bring these tools into practice. An open road LCA framework was developed for the asphalt roads in order to help in decision support at the late project planning stage such as that related to the green procurement. The framework takes into account the construction, maintenance and end of life phases and focuses on energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Threshold values for the production of some additives were also determined to show how LCA tools can help material suppliers to improve the road materials production processes and the road authorities to set limits on the use of different materials based on the environmental criteria. Additive consideration and feedstock energy in road LCAs were also identified as gaps that were looked in detail. The attributes that are important to consider in an asphalt road LCA that seeks to serve as a decision support in a procurement situation are described. A brief literature review was carried out that focused on project LCAs, and specifically those considering pavements, as this level is assumed to be appropriate for questions relevant in a procurement situation. Following the different standards; road LCAs developed all over the world have generated a lot of knowledge and the studies have been different from each other such as in terms of goals and system boundaries. Hence, the patterns observed have been very different from study to study. It was also difficult to assess the decision support level for which the various LCA frameworks or tools were developed. It is important to define system boundaries based on where in the system the decision support is needed. For LCA to be useful for decision support in a procurement situation, it is important to have a clear understanding of the attributes that constitute the life cycle phases and how data of high quality for them are obtained. The level of consistency and transparency of road LCAs becomes increasingly important in pre-procurement and procurement situations. The key attributes used in a road LCA should mirror the material properties used in a pavement design and therefore be closely linked to the performance of the road in its life cycle. From the different case studies, it was found that asphalt production and transportation of materials are usually highest in the energy and GHG emissions chain. It is highly favorable to have the quarry site, the asphalt plant and the construction site not far from each other and to use the electricity that has been produced in an efficient way. Based on the laboratory test results, it is shown that the effects of chemical warm mix asphalt additives (WMAA)s must be evaluated on a case by case basis since WMAA interaction with the aggregate surface mineralogy appears to play a significant role and thus affects its long term structural behavior. Using the material properties obtained from the Superpave indirect tensile test (IDT) results, pavement thickness design was done in which Arlanda aggregate based asphalt mixtures resulted in thinner pavements as compared to Skärlunda aggregate based asphalt mixtures for the same design life period. Energy (feedstock and expended) saving and reduction in GHG emissions were also seen with addition of WMAA, for both aggregate type cases, based on the data used. Importantly, the results presented illustrate the importance of a systems based LCA approach for evaluating the sustainability for different design and construction options. In this context, having actual pavement material properties as the key attributes in the LCA enables a pavement focused assessment of environmental costs associated with different design options. / <p>QC 20141118</p>

L'additivation chimique des bitumes est un des procédés employé industriellement pour produire des enrobés bitumineux tièdes. Bien que différents additifs commerciaux soient disponibles sur le marché, les mécanismes d'actions impliqués dans la réduction des températures de mise en œuvre demeurent relativement mal connus. Dans le cadre de cette thèse CIFRE TOTAL, trois approches complémentaires ont été étudiées afin d'avoir une meilleure compréhension de ses mécanismes. La particularité de notre démarche vient du fait que ces études ont été réalisées aux températures de mise en œuvre des enrobés bitumineux (90°C - 165°C). Dans un premier temps, une étude rhéologique indique qu'à ces températures, le bitume possède un comportement newtonien sur une large gamme de taux de cisaillement. Nous avons montré que la viscosité du bitume est peu sensible à l'ajout d'additifs mais qu'elle dépend essentiellement de la température. Nous suggérons que la viscosité volumique n'est pas adaptée pour comprendre les phénomènes mis en jeu. Nous proposons alors d'étudier le comportement rhéologique des bitumes en films minces (de quelques dizaines de micromètres). Dans un deuxième temps, nous avons employé une approche tribologique afin de mieux appréhender le comportement des systèmes liant/granulats. Des tests de frottement menés sur avec des matériaux modèles en présence de bitume révèlent qu'en régime de lubrification hydrodynamique, la réponse en frottement n'est pas sensible à l'additivation des bitumes mais à la température. En régime de lubrification limite, notre étude a montré que la réponse en frottement dépend de la température, des matériaux et de l'additivation des bitumes. Enfin, une approche interfaciale indique que les additifs modifient peu la tension superficielle du bitume et le mouillage des granulats dans l'air. En milieu aqueux, l'effet tensioactif de certains additifs est clairement mis en évidence par des essais de détermination de tension interfaciale et par des essais de mouillage. La combinaison de ces trois approches permet une meilleure compréhension des phénomènes se produisant aux niveaux des interfaces granulat/granulat et granulat/bitume. / One way to produce Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) consists in adding chemicals to bitumen. Although several! kinds of additives are available on the market the mechanisms of this technology remains still not well understood. This thesis realized within a partnership between TOTAL and the Laboratory of Tribology and Systems Dynamic is focus on three axes to get a better understanding of these mechanisms. One singularity of our approach is due to the fact that experiments were performed at industrial processing temperatures (90°C- 165°C). ln a first lime, a rheological study has shown that bitumen exhibits a Newtonian behaviour at mixing and compacting temperatures. Bitumen viscosity mainly depends on temperature but in not very affected by the chemical additivation. We suggest that the bulk rheology is not adapted to understand the phenomena which are involved and we propose to study the behaviour of thin films of few tens of microns instead. ln a second lime, a tribological approach was employed to better understand mechanisms involved in binder/aggregate systems. Friction tests were performed with model materials. Results are that the friction answer is not sensible to the presence of additives but ta temperature in hydrodynamic lubrication range. ln boundary lubrication range, the response is material-, temperature- and additive-dependant. Finally, results of an interfacial study have shown that the interfacial tension of bitumen and that the wettability of aggregates are not very sensitive ta additives when the experiments are performed in air. When performed in an aqueous medium, interfacial tension measurements and wettability tests clearly allow to reveal the surfactant behaviour of effect of some additives. The combination of the three approaches allow a better understanding of phenomena which are involved at bitumen/aggregates and aggregates/aggregates interfaces.