SPTC Workshop: Advancing Asphalt Mix Design

Abstract

In recent years, the Balanced Mix Design (BMD) approach has transformed pavement engineering by improving the structural performance of asphalt mixtures. However, ensuring pavement safety through adequate skid or frictional resistance has received comparatively little attention during the mix design stage. This workshop will begin with a comprehensive overview of the factors that control mixture frictional performance, followed by case studies aimed at improving mixtures with poor frictional characteristics. Next, a proposed framework for incorporating frictional resistance into the BMD process will be presented. Finally, recent advancements at UTEP in test procedures for evaluating the frictional performance of asphalt mixtures and aggregates, serving as surrogates to traditional polishing and friction test methods will be presented.

Bio

First speaker:

Dr. Imad Abdallah is the Director of the Center for Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CTIS) and an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering. He oversees the Center’s research and operations, managing an annual budget of about $3 million. With over twenty years of experience, Dr. Abdallah’s research focuses on data modeling, correlation analysis, and uncertainty quantification in pavement and transportation systems.

He has led numerous projects that developed pavement performance models using traditional and AI-based methods, integrated nondestructive testing data for backcalculation of layer properties, and advanced expert systems that combine numerical and heuristic analyses to guide pavement design and management decisions. Dr. Abdallah also leads CTIS’s software development team, delivering online tools that assist engineers in analysis and evaluation tasks.

He has published more than 90 technical papers and reports and has presented his work at national and international conferences.

Second Speaker:

G. Sandeep Reddy is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Texas at El Paso. He has defended his Ph.D. recently which is titled “An Approach to Incorporate Skid Resistance into Balanced Asphalt Mix Design Framework”. As a Ph.D. student, he worked for Texas Department of Transportation projects focused on the frictional resistance of aggregates and asphalt mixtures. He is the International Road Federation Fellow for the year 2023 and the member of Association of Asphalt Pavement Technologists (AAPT). He published three papers by the time of his doctoral defense, and other publications are in progress. He presented his Ph.D. research findings at conferences such as AAPT, IAI, and TRB. He won the best poster award at the IAI 2024 conference held at Denton, Texas with a cash prize. More details about his research publications and his academic journey can be found at https://shorturl.at/IKI9G and www.linkedin.com/in/GSRLin, respectively.

Registrants will have the opportunity to earn 2 Professional Development Hour (PDH) by attending this event online or in person.