Restoration of physical properties on an aged crumb rubber modified bitumen adding a bio-based recycling agent

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is a popular practice in the pavement industry due to envi-ronmental and economic benefits. But, RAP must be processed and treated before being reused in new pavements for preventing premature failures. A widely adopted strategy consists of adding recycling agents, and specifically rejuvenators, to mitigate the aging of the RAP binder. From the circular economy perspective, also crumb rubber (CR) from end-of-life tyres have been used to prepare binders with enhanced properties. The actual possibility of using the RAP derived from removed and/or reprocessed pavements containing CR particles (CR-RAP) for the formulation of new suitable mixtures is still a little-explored topic. Moreover, the available rejuvenators tailored on RAP have not yet evidence of effectiveness in producing asphalt mixtures containing CR-RAP. For this purpose, unaged, aged and rejuvenated blends with and without CR were studied through a rheological characterisation to evaluate the potential restoration of their physical properties when a bio-based recycling agent is added. The results of viscosity, frequency sweep, creep -recovery and multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR) tests have highlighted on the one hand the significant contribution of CR in reducing the accelerated aging effects of the binder, on the hand the effectiveness of the rejuvenator in restoring, more clearly at low temperatures, the rheological behaviour of the binders (above all for CRMB) similar to the unaged condition.

Automated summary

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is commonly used in the pavement industry for its environmental and economic benefits. To reuse RAP in new pavements, it must be processed and treated to prevent premature failures. Adding recycling agents, such as rejuvenators, is a widely adopted strategy to slow down the aging of RAP binder. The use of crumb rubber (CR) from end-of-life tires to prepare binders with enhanced properties is also explored. The study focuses on the potential restoration of physical properties of RAP binders containing CR particles (CR-RAP) with the addition of a bio-based recycling agent.