Evaluating Rutting Resistance of Rejuvenated Recycled Hot-Mix Asphalt Mixtures Using Different Types of Recycling Agents

Abstract

Growing environmental pollution worldwide is mostly caused by the accumulation of different types of liquid and solid wastes. Therefore, policies in developed countries seek to support the concept of waste recycling due to its significant impact on the environmental footprint. Hot-mix asphalt mixtures (HMA) with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) have shown great performance under rutting. However, incorporating a high percentage of RAP (>25%) is a challenging issue due to the increased stiffness of the resulting mixture. The stiffness problem is resolved by employing different types of commercial and noncommercial rejuvenators. In this study, three types of noncommercial rejuvenators (waste cooking oil (WCO), waste engine oil (WEO), and date seed oil (DSO)) were used, in addition to one type of commercial rejuvenator. Three percentages of RAP (20%, 40%, and 60%) were utilized. Mixing proportions for the noncommercial additives were set as 0–10% for mixtures with 20% RAP, 12.5–17.5% for mixtures with 40% RAP, and 17.5–20% for mixtures with 60% RAP. In addition, mixing proportions for the commercial additive were set as 0.5–1.0% for mixtures with 20% RAP, 1.0–1.5% for mixtures with 40% RAP, and 1.5–2.0% for mixtures with 60% RAP. The rutting performance of the generated mixtures was indicated first by using the rutting index (G*/sin δ) for the combined binders and then evaluated using the Hamburg wheel-track test. The results showed that the rejuvenated mixtures with the commercial additive at 20 and 60% RAP performed well compared to the control mixture, whereas the rejuvenated ones at 40% RAP performed well with noncommercial additives in comparison to the control mixture. Furthermore, the optimum percentages for each type of the used additives were obtained, depending on their respective performance, as 10%, 12.5%, and 17.5% of WCO, 10%, 12.5–17.5%, and 17.5% of WEO, <10%, 12.5%, and 17.5% of DSO, and 0.5–1.0%, 1.0%, and 1.5–2.0% of the commercial rejuvenator, corresponding to the three adopted percentages of RAP.