Laboratory investigation of bituminous concrete using Reclaimed asphalt pavement and waste Engine oil

Abstract

The conventional method of preparing bituminous mixes incorporating bitumen and virgin aggregates requires a huge amount of energy to produce along with environmental concerns. In pavement industry, the usage of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) material is growingup dueto financial considerations and the necessity of environmental conservatism. The effective utilisation of reclaimed asphalt pavement waste in bituminous pavement can overcome its disposal issue as well as it is cost effective too. Whereas replacing RAP with virgin aggregates have some drawbacks related to workability and overall quality of the pavement. Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement is subjected to environmental degradation hence affected due to aging. Long term aging effect is very prominent in reclaimed asphalt pavement materials. Hence, it becomes stiff and difficult to employ. To make it workable and its efficacious usage rejuvenators are needed. The addition of oil-containing additives can be useful as rejuvenators. For the present study, Waste Engine Oil (WEO) has been used as a rejuvenating agent. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the effect of RAP with or without rejuvenator in the Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixtures. To assess the performance of the bituminous mixes Marshall properties, Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) and Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) for moisture susceptibility were performed. The HMA mixture with 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, and 70% of RAP content were prepared and subsequently 1.5% of waste engine oil (by the weight of RAP content) was added to other HMA mixes containing the same RAP proportion. Corresponding result indicates that with the addition of RAP to the HMA mixes showed improved Marshall Properties, Tensile Strength and resistance against moisture susceptibility. Whereas, addition of WEO improves the Marshall Properties but decrement in Tensile Strength was observed.