The reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has become a moderately common practice in most countries; Hence, rejuvenating materials with RAP have earned publicity in the asphalt manufacturers, mainly due to the increasing raw material costs. In this study, the crumb rubber (CR) and waste frying oil (WFO) utilized as waste materials to restore the properties and enhance the rutting resistance of the RAP. Several physical, rheological, chemical properties of bituminous binders were tested. The result showed that the RAP bituminous binders incorporating WFO and CR decreased softening points and the increased penetration value; these translate to an increase in penetration index. Moreover, the viscosity of the WFO/CR combination reclaimed asphalt pavement binder showed better workability and stiffness, as well as a low storage stability temperature (less than 2.2 °C) with an acceptable loss upon heating. Without chemical reaction was observed between the waste-frying oil with the rubberized binder and the reclaimed asphalt pavement binder. Additionally, the WFO/CR rheological properties combined with the reclaimed asphalt pavement binder were comparable to the control sample. The incorporation of CR with WFO as a hybrid rejuvenator enhanced the rutting resistance. Therefore, the presence of WFO/CR has a considerable influence on the RAP binder properties while preserving a better environment and reducing pollution by reusing waste materials.
Researchers are exploring the utilisation of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) as a recycled material to determine the performance of non-renewable natural aggregates and other road products such as asphalt binder, in the construction and rehabilitation stage of asphalt pavements. The addition of RAP in asphalt mixtures is a complex process and there is a need to understand the design of the asphalt mixture. Some of the problems associated with adding RAP to asphalt mixtures are moisture damage and cracking damage caused by poor adhesion between the aggregates and asphalt binder. There is a need to add rejuvenators to the recycled mixture containing RAP to enhance its performance, excepting the rutting resistance. This study sought to improve asphalt mixture performance and mechanism by adding waste frying oil (WFO) and crumb rubber (CR) to 25 and 40% of the RAP content. Moreover, the utilisation of CR and WFO improved pavement sustainability and rutting performance. In addition, this study prepared five asphalt mixture samples and compared their stiffness, moisture damage and rutting resistance with the virgin asphalt. The results showed enhanced stiffness and rutting resistance of the RAP but lower moisture resistance. The addition of WFO and CR restored the RAP properties and produced rutting resistance, moisture damage and stiffness, which were comparable to the virgin asphalt mixture. All waste and virgin materials produce homogeneous asphalt mixtures, which influence the asphalt mixture performance. The addition of a high amount of WFO and a small amount of CR enhanced pavement sustainability and rutting performance.
The long-term aging of the asphalt mixtures has become a major concern because it decreases the lifespan of the asphalt layer. In this study, the asphalt mixtures incorporating steel slag aggregates were reinforced with synthetic fibers as a novel contribution in terms of decreasing the effect of aging on the performance of the asphalt mixtures. However, different mixtures—namely, Mix0, Mix1, and Mix2—were subjected to long-term oven aging to study the effect of the aging on the performance of the asphalt mixes. Mix0 consisted of coarse and fine granite aggregates, while Mix1 was composed of coarse steel slag aggregate and fine granite aggregate. Mix2 represents the reinforced asphalt mixtures incorporating coarse steel slag aggregate and reinforced with the synthetic fibers of polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic, and polyester at the proportion of 0.3% by weight of the aggregates. The conducted performance tests were resilient modulus, rutting depth, and cracking resistance. The outputs of the performance tests for the unaged asphalt mixes displayed that the mixtures incorporating coarse steel slag aggregate exhibited better performance than the mixtures containing granite aggregate. Meanwhile, the reinforced asphalt mixtures have shown a lower resilient modulus and a higher permanent deformation than the unreinforced asphalt mixes due to the elastic behavior. Otherwise, the reinforced asphalt mixtures have shown superior resistance to cracking in comparison to the unreinforced mixtures. On the other hand, the performance of the aged asphalt mixtures demonstrated that the mixtures containing granite aggregates exhibited a lower susceptibility to aging than the mixtures incorporating steel slag aggregate. Meanwhile, the performance of the aged reinforced asphalt mixtures showed that introducing synthetic fibers has decreased the effect of the long-term oven aging.
The major goal of sustainable practices is to preserve raw resources through the utilization of waste materials as an alternative to natural resources. Decreasing the temperature required to produce asphalt mixes contributes to environmental sustainability by reducing energy consumption and toxic emissions. In this study, warm mix asphalt incorporating coarse steel slag aggregates was investigated. Warm mix asphalt was produced at different temperatures lower than the control asphalt mixes (hot mix asphalt) by 10, 20, and 30 °C. The performances of the control and warm mix asphalt were assessed through laboratory tests examining stiffness modulus, dynamic creep, and moisture sensitivity. Furthermore, a response surface methodology (RSM) was conducted by means of DESIGN EXPERT 11 to develop prediction models for the performance of warm mix asphalt. The findings of this study illustrate that producing warm mix asphalt at a temperature 10 °C lower than that of hot mix asphalt exhibited the best results, compared to the other mixes. Additionally, the warm mix asphalt produced at 30 °C lower than the hot mix asphalt exhibited comparable performance to the hot mix asphalt. However, as the production temperature increases, the performance of the warm mix asphalt improves.
Asphalt pavement has the advantages of driving comfort and convenient maintenance, which has been widely applied to highway construction. However, due to the continuously increased traffic volume, it is recognized that asphalt binder and mixtures with enhanced characteristics are needed to guarantee the durability of the functional performance of transportation infrastructures. This study was carried to evaluate the effect of fly ash geopolymer additive on the rheological properties of unaged and short-term aged asphalt binder. In the respect, asphalt binder 80/100 and 60/70 penetration grade with 0, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11% fly ash geopolymer by weight of asphalt binder were prepared. The results indicated that the addition of FAG significantly increases the stiffness (G*) and decreases the phase angle (δ) for both unaged and short-term aged modified asphalt binder compared to the control asphalt binder. This can be proved that presence of FAG significantly improved rutting parameter i.e G*/sin δ compared to control in which capable to resist rutting at higher temperature. In terms of failure temperature, highest failure temperature of 9% FAG modified asphalt binder indicated that the binder is less susceptible to be rutting at high pavement temperature for both unaged and short-term aged, respectively. Overall research conclusions are that 9% of FAG is proposed as the minimal content to be used as an additive in asphalt binder for further mixture evaluations.