What is Asphalt concrete?
[[Image:Asphalt concrete.JPG|thumb|250px|Asphalt concrete]] '''Asphalt concrete''' is a [[composite material]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/701330646|title=The American Heritage dictionary of the English language.|date=2011|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-547-04101-8|edition=5th|location=Boston|oclc=701330646}}</ref> It is commonly used to build [[roads]], [[Parking lot|parking lots]], [[Airport|airports]], and [[Embankment dam|embankment dams]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-07-07|title=International Water Power and Dam Construction|url=http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=472|access-date=2021-05-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707001414/http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=472|archive-date=2012-07-07}}</ref> [[Asphalt]] [[Mixture|mixtures]] have been used in making [[Pavement|pavements]] since the beginning of the twentieth century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Polaczyk|first1=Pawel|last2=Huang|first2=Baoshan|last3=Shu|first3=Xiang|last4=Gong|first4=Hongren|date=2019-09-01|title=Investigation into Locking Point of Asphalt Mixtures Utilizing Superpave and Marshall Compactors|url=https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29MT.1943-5533.0002839|journal=Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering|language=EN|volume=31|issue=9|pages=04019188|doi=10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0002839|s2cid=197635732|issn=1943-5533}}</ref> It is made up of [[mineral]] [[aggregate]] bound together with asphalt. The process was made by [[Edward De Smedt]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/906025798|title=Roads were not built for cars : How cyclists were the first to push for good roads & became the pioneers of motoring|last=Reid|first=Carlton|date=2015|isbn=978-1-61091-688-2|location=Washington, DC|oclc=906025798}}</ref> ==Asphalt mixtures== Mixing of asphalt and aggregate is done in one of several ways: === Hot-mix asphalt concrete (commonly abbreviated as HMA) === This is made by heating the asphalt [[binder]] to make it less [[Viscosity|