Performance Assessment of Waste Cooking Oil-Modified Asphalt Mixtures

Abstract

This study aims to develop a framework to incorporate Waste Cooking Oil (WCO) into asphalt mixtures. Such a framework utilizes a Balanced Mix Design (BMD) approach to ensure adequate resistance to cracking and rutting. Transportation agencies can use the proposed framework to incorporate recycled materials such as used cooking oils and reclaimed asphalt pavements into asphalt mixtures, which promotes sustainability in asphalt pavement construction. This study evaluated the cracking and rutting performance of the control and modified asphalt mixtures with different WCO dosages (i.e., 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7% by the weight of the binder) using the Indirect Tensile Asphalt Cracking (IDEAL) and High-temperature Indirect Tensile (High-IDT) Rutting Assessment Tests, respectively. The results demonstrated that WCO improved the cracking resistance of the control balanced mixture but reduced its resistance to rutting. A statistically significant effect was observed at high WCO dosages. Furthermore, the interaction plot indicates that the overall performance of WCO-modified asphalt becomes softer and more flexible with the increase in WCO dosage. Thus, the designed balanced control mixture becomes unbalanced when using WCO oil at any dosage. This study proposed several approaches to design a more economically balanced WCO-modified balance asphalt mixture.