# Investigation of the Performance of Basalt Fiber Reinforced Asphalt Mixture
## 1 Introduction  
With economic development, a large number of highways have been built in Jiangxi Province, China. Due to its advantages, like less expensive and wear-resisting, asphalt mixture is one the most commonly used building materials in the pavement construction of Jiangxi Province. However, because of the harsh climate and the increasing traffic volume, traditional asphalt mixtures are difficult to meet the durability requirement of asphalt pavement. Jiangxi Province is located in southern China and belongs to the humid subtropical climate zone. Permanent deformation of asphalt pavement, such as rutting, crowding, pushing and waves, are formed under heavy loads at high temperatures. In the rainy season, water damage, such as looseness, spalling, pits and pitted surfaces, are prone to appear. Meanwhile, in recent years, large-scale natural disasters, such as low temperatures, rain, snow and freezing, have also occurred in the Jiangxi Province. After severe natural disasters, large-area cracking of asphalt pavement appears which will reduce its life expectancy.  
In order to improve the durability of asphalt pavement, many researchers add different types of fibers in the asphalt mixtures, such as lignin, polymer, polyester, mineral, rubber, carbon, rock, wool, plastic and so on [1; 2; 3; 4]. [PERSON] et al. [5] utilized both the polyester fiber and mineral fiber to enhance the performance of the SMA mixture. [PERSON] et al. [6] evaluated the permanent deformation and moisture susceptibility of asphalt mixture with waste fibers produced from scrap tire processing. [PERSON] al. [7] proposed that a new type of plastic fiber can be used to improve structural integrity ofthe asphalt mixture. [PERSON] et al. found that brucite fiber could increase the strength and toughness of asphalt mixture. Meanwhile, the addition of fibers also can prevent the degradation of asphalt during transportation and construction [8; 9; 10]. [PERSON] al. [11] found the usability of basalt fibers in asphalt mixture has improved its resistance to permanent deformation. [PERSON] [12] studied the high temperature property of asphalt mixture.Ahmad [PERSON] et al. [13; 14] discussed the water sensitivity and high-temperature performance of magnesium phosphate cement mortar with different dosages of basalt fiber by means of microscopic analysis. [PERSON], [PERSON] et al. demonstrated that the addition of three different fibrous materials can effectively improve the bending properties and compressive strength of the phosphate cement composites [14; 15; 16]. Several studies have shown that the road performance of asphalt mixture can be enhanced by the addition of fibers [17; 18; 19; 20]. However, different types of fibers have different performance improvements on asphalt mixtures.  
Basalt fiber is produced from extremely fine fibers of basalt and hasexcellentphysical properties, high thermal stabilityand excellent chemical resistance [21; 22]. As a new kind of high-performance fiber, basalt fibersalso areabundant in JiangxiProvince. However, it is usually used for structural, electrical technical purposes, such as electromagnetic shielding structures, aircraft, ships and household appliances, etc.In order to solve the problem of insufficient road durability in Jiangxi Province and promote the application of basalt fiber in pavement engineering, it is necessary to study the road performance of basalt fiber with a comprehensive evaluation.  
In this article, the road performance of basalt fiber asphalt mixture was tested and comprehensively analyzed by the Marshall Stability test, the wheel tracking test, the three-point bending beam test and the freezing-thaw splitting test. The results show better performance with the optimum content of basalt fiber in the asphalt mixture. Besides, parallel contrast laboratory tests were studied between basalt fiber, polyester fiber and lignin fiber-reinforced asphalt mixture.