Development of rejuvenator using waste vegetable oil and its influence on pavement performance of asphalt binder under ultraviolet aging

Abstract

With the development of road engineering, the shortage of resources and road damage are becoming increasingly serious. In this research, The regeneration effect of a rejuvenator on the ultraviolet (UV)-aged asphalt is tested. The rejuvenator is composed of base oil, plasticizer, toughener and petroleum resin. The recovery performance of aged asphalt inareas with strong UV light is compared using indoor asphalt aging tests. A representative UV aged asphalt is selected for experiments. The basic performance of regenerated asphalt with the mixed ratio of different materials is measured using penetration, softening point, and ductility tests. The orthogonal test design (OTD) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model are established, and the optimal match design of a rejuvenator is obtained. The performance of UV aged asphalt before and after regeneration is tested by dynamic shear rheology (DSR) and the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) test. The results show a strong link between the asphalt from the areas with intense UV light and the asphalt after indoor 50 h UV aging. Waste vegetable oil (WVO) is selected as the base oil for the rejuvenator. The proportion of plasticizer in the WVO was determined to 30% based on OTD-AHP model optimization, the toughening agent is 4%, and petroleum resin is 9%. The high-temperature performance of asphalt can be improved with a reasonable regenerative agent dosage. The FTIR test shows that the rejuvenator can dilute carbonyl and sulfoxide groups in aged asphalt, soften asphalt and restore asphalt pavement performance. The results of this study can be applied to the asphalt regeneration to provide road remediation measures for asphalt deterioration in high UV areas.