Recent Development in High-Content Reclaimed Asphalt Use

Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Abstract

In recent years, the use of recycled materials in construction and maintenance has increased significantly and been adopted as a common practice in the industrial field. Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is one of the most ideal materials that contain huge environmental and economic value. The present challenges faced with RAP is low utilization and degradation problems. Increasing the amount of RAP used in the mix design is considered an effective method to address these problems and can producing a three-fold benefit for the environment, economic, and landfill stress. The key point of increasing RAP use is usually reflected in the proper utilization of current production technologies, new mix design, and management. This paper summarizes the main limitation, distress, and present recent progress in high RAP use. The most common practice be utilized are the use of softer bitumen, softening additives and rejuvenators, while the application of warm mix asphalt technology also showed a positive result. The research results suggest that the utilization of those new practices could achieve better cracking resistance and improve the work-ability and rutting potential.