A New Sustainable Additive for Anti-Icing Pavement

Yan Zhang et al.
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:15:31 PDT

Based on a review and synthesis of the state-of-the-art literature on asphalt pavement with anti-icing additives, this laboratory study developed an anti-icing asphalt pavement that incorporates innovative salt-storage additives with a sustained salt-release rate. These additives were prepared through a surface treatment approach, in which zeolite containing CaCl2 was coated by a porous epoxy layer. The anti-icing performances and mechanical properties of asphalt mixture with the obtained additives were investigated. The experimental results indicated that the anti-icing capability of asphalt mixture at both -3.9 °C (25°F) and -9.4 °C (15°F) was significantly improved by the addition of the additives, and the friction coefficient of the pavement at 60 min after moisture spray was 0.75 at -3.9 °C to 0.55 at -9.4 °C. Reducing the size of additives resulted in a further improved anti-icing capability. Under simulated conditions, the estimated effective anti-icing period of asphalt pavement with additives #8, #16, and #30 were 5.8 years, 9.9 years and 15.3 years, respectively. The incorporation of the additives exhibited negligible effect on the moisture damage resistance of asphalt mixture, and almost all the mixtures passed the WSDOT specification as well as the Wisconsin and Iowa specifications. The rutting resistance, mid-temperature (fatigue) cracking resistance, and low-temperature (thermal) cracking resistance of asphalt mixture improved due to the addition of these anti-icing additives to various extents.