Determining the Effect on Asphalt Mixture Performance by Increasing New Asphalt Binder Content Due to Inactive RAP Binder in the Mixture

FDOT’s pavement condition survey identifies the number one pavement distress as cracking/raveling, as compared to rutting and ride rating. Cracking/raveling can be caused by several means, one of which is low asphalt binder content. FDOT would like to research means of increasing the asphalt binder content in structural mixtures containing RAP, with the intent of improving cracking resistance without compromising rutting performance. By decreasing the contribution of the activated RAP binder to the total binder content by a certain percentage, this would then afford the replacement of that amount of RAP binder with new asphalt binder. Additional asphalt binder could be beneficial with respect to reducing cracking/raveling but too much asphalt binder can cause an asphalt mixture to be more susceptible to rutting. The goal of this research is to determine if reducing the available RAP binder contribution and replacing it with new asphalt binder will affect mixture performance (positively or negatively) and determine how to implement these changes during mix design and production. The purpose of this project is not to determine the percentage of RAP binder availability (i.e., how much of the RAP binder becomes active in the asphalt mix) by experimentation: the PI should determine this through literature review, as this work has been studied previously. This project will focus on how to incorporate the findings from the literature review on the availability of RAP binder into mix design and production and evaluate impacts on cracking and rutting performance.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $240000
• Contract Numbers:

  BEC79

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Florida Department of Transportation

  605 Suwannee Street
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32399-0450
• Managing Organizations:

  Florida Department of Transportation

  605 Suwannee Street
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32399-0450
• Project Managers:

  Sholar, Greg

• Performing Organizations:

  Auburn University

  Auburn, AL  United States  36830
• Principal Investigators:

  Yin, Fang

• Start Date: 20211220
• Expected Completion Date: 20231201
• Actual Completion Date: 20231221

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt mixtures; Binder content; Cracking; Mix design; Pavement performance; Reclaimed asphalt pavements; Rutting
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01833087
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Florida Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: BEC79
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jan 21 2022 11:12AM