Use of high percentage of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) material in Hot Mix Asphalt is one of the several sustainable construction alternatives being considered by many Departments of Transportation (DOT). Use of RAP in HMA helps in reducing the consumption of virgin aggregates and binder and construction cost and conserving energy. Although most of the US state agencies allow the use of 30% or more RAP in the design of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA), the current average RAP usage is only about 10 to 20%. This is because of the uncertainty about the performance of HMA mixes with a high RAP content. Several factors influence the performance of the HMA mixes with a high RAP content. Recent research has shown that the use of a high RAP content in HMA with rejuvenators is successful in reducing the stiffness of the RAP mixes, and thereby improving their performance. The present work is carried out to explore the feasibility of using a high RAP content of 50% in a binder layer HMA with the addition of rejuvenators. Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) test was carried out to compare the stiffness of the RAP mixes with and without the addition of rejuvenators. Moisture Induced Stress Test (MIST) was conducted to study the effect of moisture damage on the HMA mixes with high RAP content. The Indirect Tensile Strength Test (ITS) was used to determine the strength of the HMA mixes with high RAP content. In addition, creep compliance and Semicircular Bend (SCB) tests were carried out to determine the cracking potential and fracture strength of the mixes respectively. The addition of rejuvenators was found to significantly reduce the stiffness of the mix with high RAP content. The predicted complex shear modulus (G*) obtained from the Hirsch model and performance grading tests on extracted binders confirmed the effectiveness of the addition of rejuvenators in reducing the stiffness of recycled asphalt binder in the recycled mixes.

The desire to find more sustainable paving practices as well as the dramatically rising binder costs driven by the growing global demand for paved roads, has led to increased interest of the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in very high amounts. So far the major industry trend has been to develop procedures, invest in technologies and build confidence in mixtures with up to 40 % RAP content. However, a few innovators have refined 100 % recycling technologies over the past four decades to a level where routine production of 100 % recycled hot mix asphalt is in clear sight. Rejuvenators are an integral part of 100 % recycled asphalt production and they can also allow to significantly increase the RAP content for conventionally produced asphalt mixtures. An evaluation of the feasibility of production of 100 % recycled hot-mix asphalt was made and the use of rejuvenators is presented in this study. 100 % recycling is discussed by evaluating ten readily available production technologies along with proposing mix design procedures and identifying best RAP management strategies. A total of eleven different products were evaluated for restoring the RAP binder grade with a definite conclusion that achieving target grade (PG or empirical specification) is possible. In addition a rheological, micromechanical and chemical characterization was performed with select rejuvenators and binders from Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) library. To further assess the rejuvenators and feasibility of 100 % RAP recycling a series of 100 % mixture tests were performed that indicated significant improvement in low temperature and fatigue cracking resistance while providing a rut resistant mixture. With the use of some rejuvenators a performance equal to that of reference virgin mix was achieved. Based on these findings of rejuvenator effectiveness a methodology for choice of rejuvenator type and dose was proposed. Finally, a cradle-to-gate analysis of environmental effects was performed which indicated 35 % CO2eq savings per ton of produced 100 % RAP asphalt mixture compared to virgin mix while cost analysis showed at least 50 % savings in material related expenses. A short video summarizing the research is available at http://youtu.be/y-rYvdGiEbY.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds, which are common to coal tar and coal-tar-based products, are ubiquitous environmental contaminates with carcinogenic effects to human health and aquatic life. Transport of PAHs via solid phase particulate motion, gaseous phase volatilization, and aqueous phase dissolution into urban waterbodies of PAH compounds from coal-tar-based pavement sealant products has been studied. Pavement rejuvenators are products applied to increase the usable life of pavement. Coal-tar-based rejuvenators contain a significantly larger mass fraction of coal-tar with respect to coal-tar-based sealants, but pavement rejuvenators have not been as extensively studied as pavement sealants. Chemical analysis of detached pavement material treated with coal-tar-bases, asphalt-based, and bio-based rejuvenators was conducted with gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis for 16 PAH compounds and two aromatic heterocyclic organic compounds following extraction with methylene chloride. Detached pavement material was collected from 19 simulated asphalt surface abrasion experiments that used a model mobile load simulator (MMLS) test apparatus that replicated surface challenges from vehicular traffic. The MMLS test apparatus configuration allowed asphalt disc samples treated with different rejuvenation products, to be tested and for detached material to be collected and quantified prior to GC/MS analysis. Test cases evaluated the influence of rejuvenation product type and cure time, as well as the effect of sand application (simulating sand application during slippery winter storm conditions) had on detached particulate and ultimate PAH compound loading. The average mass of particulate detachment from samples following a 48 hour cure time, for the asphalt-based and coal-tar-based rejuvenator products were 0.347 g and 0.480 g, respectively. This mass of detached material was lower than that from pavement treated with bio-based rejuvenator and the control (not treated), which had 4.858 g and 2.567 g of detached particulate material, respectively. When the product cure time was increased to three weeks, which was significantly long enough to capture effects of compound volatilization, average particulate detachment increased to 0.882 g for the coal-tar-based rejuvenator and decreased for the bio-based rejuvenator to 2.600 g. Six tests performed with a single application of winter storm sand after a 48 hour product cure time showed an increase in average particulate detachment to 1.450 g and 0.617 g for pavement treated with the asphalt-based and coal-tar-based rejuvenators, respectively. Conversely, under the same conditions, a reduction in average detached particulate to 3.749 g was observed for the bio-based product. Detached particulate material quantities for each test case were used with the respective cumulative concentration of 16 PAH compounds quantified to make an assessment on the potential PAH compound contamination via solid phase particle transport. The average PAH compound concentration in particulate detached from pavement treated with a coal-tar-based rejuvenator was 3062.8 mg PAH per kg of particulate. This was an order of magnitude higher than the average PAH concentration measured in particulate detached from the two control pavement samples and the two asphalt-based samples after a 48 hour cure time, which were 322.1 and 508.1 mg PAH per kg detached particulate, respectively. PAH compound concentrations were also normalized by the surface area of pavement treated with a rejuvenator to determine the potential PAH compound contamination per unit area. Normalized results for each rejuvenator type were averaged to make an overall evaluation of the potential rejuvenator specific PAH compound loading. The coal-tar-based, bio-based, and asphalt-based rejuvenators had a normalized cumulative solid-phase PAH compound release of 2.35, 0.88, and 0.17 mg PAH per square foot of pavement rejuvenated, respectively. In addition, carbazole was quantified in all pavement samples treated with the coal-tar-based rejuvenator at an average concentration of 125.6 mg carbazole per kg detached particulate. Acridine was quantified in detached particulate from five of seven coal-tar-based test performed at an average concentration (excluding non-detection samples) of 42.1 mg acridine per kg detached particulate.

No description available.

At the beginning of the Master’s thesis the asphalt mixture of the type asphalt concrete and its basic properties are described. The main point of this work is to compare the functional properties of asphalt mixtures with the addition of higher amount of RAP and various rejuvenators used in the experimental section. From individual samples of asphalt mixtures taken during the laying, the control tests were carried out and the process of permanent deformation with the wheel tracking test was monitored. After that, using functional tests the properties of asphalt mixtures with conventional modified and unmodified asphalt bitumen enriched with the addition of declaring similar properties were compared.

The thesis is focused on the use of R-material into cold asphalt mixtures. It deals with cold recycling and with input materials for this technology. It verifies properties of R-material and residues of bituminous binder. It also verifies properties of designed cold asphalt mixtures by the probative controls (indirect tensile strenght and water resistance). Furthermore is focused on the experimental measurement of selected mixtures to ensure more characteristics. The amount of homogenity of R-material, quantity and quality of residues bituminous binder is essential for positive results.