Characterization of Cement Asphalt Mortar for Slab Track by Dynamic Mechanical Thermoanalysis

Abstract

Cement emulsified asphalt (CA) mortar is a key engineering material for ballastless slab tracks of high speed rail (HSR) and has a wide range of asphalt to cement (A/C) mass ratios. Depending on the A/C ratio, CA mortar may be composed of either cement-based or asphalt-based materials. In this paper, based on typical field service conditions of CA mortar of HSR and the characteristics of CA mortar, the testing conditions of dynamic mechanical thermoanalysis (DMTA) for CA mortar were determined, including by measuring the mode, specimen size, frequency, heating rate, and temperature range. Results show that DMTA characterized in this study indicates high repeatability and is an appropriate method for evaluating the thermodynamic mechanical properties of CA mortar. The vibration damping ability of CA mortar increases with an increase in asphalt content within a temperature range of (−40 to 60°C).