Binder and mixture fatigue performance of plant-produced road surface course asphalt mixtures with high contents of reclaimed asphalt

Abstract

The aged properties of Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) binders are one of the main factorsworking against their utilisation in high-RA content (>30%) mixes for surface courses. Fatigue cracking is the main distress of surface courses that are manufactured with a high percentage ofRA. This investigation presents results of the rheological and fatigue results of different asphaltmixtures and their recovered binders. The binders were recovered from asphalt mixtures that had been manufactured in asphalt plants using different amounts of RA with contents up to 60%with and without rejuvenators.Two different sources of RA were used, representing a moderatelyaged RA and an extremely aged RA.The DynamicShear Rheometer (DSR) was used to assess thefatigue-characteristics of the binders using time sweep tests while the fatigue characteristics of theirmixtures were assessed using the Indirect Tensile Fatigue Test (ITFT). The fatigue data was analysedbased on the cumulative dissipated energy approach in addition to traditional fatigue analysis.Results have shown that the ageing condition of RA significantly affects the fatigue properties ofrecovered binders. Binder and asphalt mixture fatigue results showed that RA contents up to 60Ên produce comparable fatigue performance compared to lower percentages of RA in road surface course if the aged RA binder is sufficiently rejuvenated. (PDF) Binder and Mixture Fatigue Performance of Plant-Produced Road Surface Course Asphalt Mixtures with High Contents of Reclaimed Asphalt.