MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES AND DYNAMICS OF HOT-MIX ASPHALT MIXTURE PRODUCTION

In most countries, the pavement of motor roads, airfields and other trafficked areas is made of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixture prepared by asphalt mixing plants (AMP) of various designs. The total output of HMA mixtures shows the dynamics of national road transport infrastructure's development, corresponding to the increasing number of vehicles, traffic intensity and axle loading. HMA mixtures are made by using various technologies, which have some advantages and disadvantages. The paper presents technological schemes of making HMA mixtures used in Lithuania and other countries. The development of AMP and technical and technological characteristics of new computer-aided AMP models used at various asphalt production companies (APC) were analysed. Based on the data provided by the European Asphalt Pavement Association (EAPA), the correlational-regression relation between the country's area and the amount of the produced HMA mixtures was established. The data on the total output of HMA mixtures in Lithuania cannot be found in the information provided by EAPA. For the first time, the dynamics of the production of HMA mixtures by particular APC in Lithuania over the last 10 years (1998-2007) has been determined based on the data directly obtained from their manufacturers. The data were analysed and compared to the output of HMA mixtures in other countries and the dynamics of the development of AMP models used in Lithuania and changes in their numbers were determined.