Unsaturated Soils and Asphalt Mixtures

In the land masses in tropical regions, with arid and semi-arid climates, as is the case of Brazil, the unsaturated condition is very significant, making inadequate the use of initial concepts and theories of classical Soil Mechanics, which were created for saturated or dry environment. These soils present peculiarities of properties and behavior, due to the action of geological and/or pedological processes, typical of tropical regions.Another scenario that also deserves attention in the Geotechnical field, more precisely in paving, is the Brazilian asphalt coating. The coating layer may present problems under the long-term effect of loads and environmental factors. Fatigue cracking is one of the most common problems found in highways. In this perspective, the recycling of milled material appears as a viable alternative to solve the problem from the technical and environmental point of view. Microencapsulation techniques and induction heating are being studied in order to minimize this achievement. Research shows that asphalt mixtures modified with the use of oils, polymers and acids have good mechanical performance.