Characterization of fatigue performance of cold mix recycled asphalt mixtures through uniaxial tension–compression testing

Abstract

Cold recycling of pavements utilizes nearly 100% of the reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) for pavement rehabilitation. Due to the large amount of RAP, the cold recycled mixes would become prone to fatigue cracking, and hence evaluation of their fatigue performance becomes highly important. In this study, three cold recycled asphalt mixes were prepared using a regular cationic slow setting asphalt emulsions with hard base asphalt binder (CSS-1h) with and without Portland cement stabilization, and a polymer modified emulsion (CSS-1hp). The optimum emulsion and pre-mix water contents were determined using Superpave Gyratory compacted specimens through the mix design process by studying the air void levels and meeting minimum strength requirements. Fatigue properties of these three groups of mixes were then evaluated through a series of uniaxial cyclic tension–compression tests. The results were compared in terms of the modulus degradation, dissipated energy capacity, changes in phase angle, and number of cycles to failure, to determine the fatigue lives of the different mixes. The results indicated that adding 1% Portland cement to the cold recycled specimens significantly improved their fatigue performance as compared to the control scenario specimens prepared with regular CSS-1h emulsion. Using the polymer modified emulsion also led to a slightly improved fatigue resistance of the cold mix specimens as compared to the mixes prepared with regular emulsion. Furthermore, Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) testing of the two residual emulsion binders indicated potential of improving the rutting resistance for the mixes prepared with the polymer modified emulsion.