Exploring the Efficacy of Amine-Free Anti-Stripping Agent in Improving Asphalt Characteristics

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper presents a series tests on to assess the Potential for Enhancing Asphalt Mixture Attributes with Anti-Stripping Agent. It is well designed and organized. However, I recommend the authors to add more introduction of the test facilities.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Please refer to the document attached

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The title is very general and probably cannot reflect any innovation.

2. The moisture damage mechanism should include the surface energy based mechanism. Many studies can be found about the moisture damage mechanism and material selection of HMA with amine antistripping agent.

3. The authors give a very comprehensive description of the types of antistripping agent, which is very interesting to read. I suggest adding the most recent technology about using waste plastic to coat aggregate and make the hydrophobic aggregate. (e.g., Waste plastic powder coating on acidic aggregates: A new hydrophobic coating technology to build moisture-resistant asphalt mixtures).

4. The description of "Amine-free antistripping agent" is too broad. I suggest giving more characterization of the material such as the components.

5. The way of writing is kind of like a experimental report. More in-depth discussion should be made.

Author Response

Please refer to the document attached

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

Regarding the reviewed paper, I found the following:

 

As weak elements

 Equations do not respect journals format! However, I recommend that authors carefully consult the authors' guide provided by the journal.

Unit of measure should be passed for some graphs (eg 1-3).

In my opinion, the paper needs a reorganization. There is a lot of information (which is good), but it is not necessarily well and organized presented!

The adhesion of bitumen to aggregates is a matter that should be more emphasized in the paper, because it strongly influences the results of mechanical tests as well as the characteristics of asphalt mixture! There are many methods for determining the adhesiveness of bitumen to aggregates! The authors presented several methods of determining the characteristics of bitumens and mixtures, rather than presenting the mechanism and adhesiveness tests! Reading the paper, it seemed to me that was presented what is called "indirect evidence" (to use a legal term)!

References are good, but there are other well-known specialists who should be consulted and who may appear in the bibliography.  

In conclusion, the information about the characteristics of the bitumen and the mixture should be presented a little more succinctly and the part with the adhesiveness determinations should be developed! Not to mention that it would be good to see some photos of possible samples or some device used during testing!

As notable elements

I appreciate the multitude of tests performed in the laboratory. That requires a lot of time, effort and used materials and equipments.

 

Author Response

Please refer to the document attached

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper has been revised and good for publication.

Author Response

Thank you so much. We want to express our sincere gratitude for taking the time to thoroughly review our manuscript