Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF RIZAL SYSTEM

Antipolo City
A.Y. 2019 – 2020

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Research Critique

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in

CE 16: Timber Design

Presented by:

Group 2

Datuin, Dominic
Duque, Jouie Kalle Ericka
Gonzales, Jenny Rose
Gozum, Kim Emmanuel
Julian, Daniel
Lauzon, Patricia Ann
Marero, Sydney
Masula, Marvin Dave
Marigondon Jake
Moran, Mark Louie

Submitted to:

George Prejula Palada, RCE

Instructor

19 September 2019
Research Title: Characterization and Design of a Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt Mix
Formulation

Keywords: Crumb Rubber, Martial Mixed Design, PG Grading, Rubberized Bitumen

Transportation plays a significant role in the economic growth of every country.

Roads are the basic medium of transporting goods and people from one place to another. As
the nation’s population and demand for trading increases roads are being use more often
resulting to wearing and damage of roads, asphalt roads in particular experiences extensive
distress like rutting, fatigue cracking, potholes, bleeding and raveling. This problem must be
addressed by Engineers if they want a permanent solution to this pressing issue while also
considering the growing concern in global warming.

This study aims to provide a sustainable solution to asphalt road wearing using
scrap tires as an alternative material to bitumen, this will not only help construct better
performing asphalt roads but also take into account the usage of non-biodegradable materials
to help decrease global warming.

One of the strengths of this study is the choice of the alternative material, since
scrap tires are very abundant and doesn’t have any other uses, also materials that are made
from rubber takes million years to decay, some factories and other locations scrap tires are
incinerated to avoid or minimize dumpsite usage, thus contributing greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere increasing the global temperature. If we propose ways to utilize discarded scrap
tires we can help reduce waste and help the environment. Also, Crumb rubber provides
adequate tensile strength to asphalt layer and reduction of air voids resulting in the prevention
failures of pavement. Rubberized asphalt has also proven to reduce road noise. Since the
study was conducted in Kuwait, which is located at the western part of Asia, petroleum or
natural gasses which is a primary component of asphalt mixes is very abundant, which makes
asphalt roads more economical rather than concrete roads. This study proves that crumbed
rubber provides higher thermal resistance than regular bitumen which is an advantage in
countries with higher temperature like Kuwait.
 This study has few weaknesses, like test results that are provided for trial mixes
are just for the density of the asphalt and determination of air voids, this is important because
the strength capacity of asphalt roads will largely depend on this property, however further
test must be conducted to determine other properties that may contribute to the failure of the
trial mixes like, stiffness, creep and fatigue testing. Also, asphalt mixes with crumb rubber
requires higher temperatures for it to develop full strength capacity thus needing more energy
or more fuel than regular bitumen. According to the Construction Guidelines for Crumb Rubber
Modified Hot Mix Asphalt (1996) by Hanson, D.I., Epps, J.A. Epps and Hicks R. G. of the
Federal Highway Administration, crumb rubber tends to separate and settle down in the
asphalt cement and therefore asphalt rubber needs to be agitated continuously to keep the
rubber particles in suspension also crumb rubber is prone to degradation (devulcanization
and depolymerzation) and thus lose its elasticity if asphalt rubber is maintained at high
temperatures for more than 6-8 hours. This means asphalt rubber must be used only up until
8 hours after production.

Since rubberized asphalt has been implemented to other countries especially

in the United States where according to the US Environmental Protection Agency an estimated
annual consumption of 220 Million pounds or approximately 12 Million tires for the production
of rubberized asphalt and has proven to be effective the adaptation of this alternative material
to the country where the research was conducted and also to other countries who’s not been
using it will not be an issue and will have very few detractors. Also choosing Asphalt against
concrete pavement will be an advantage since asphalt offers higher flexibility rather than
concrete which tends to crack faster when exposed to higher loads and temperature. Choosing
alternate materials which are more sustainable and helps reduce waste like crumb rubber for
discarded tires will also give an opportunity for this research to be implemented.

One of the threats we can anticipate for this project is the unpredicted inflation
rate of the population, increase in population means higher demands for road usage. If there
is an unexpected increase in population that has not been counted during the design of roads,
this will still result to fatigue and cracking of the rubberized asphalt.
 According to the study Xu Yang etal. titled “ Emmission Analysis of Recycled
Tire Rubber Modified Asphalt in Hot and Warm Mix Condition” (2018) the production of
Rubberized Asphalt emits higher amounts of harmful toxins like xylene and toluene as
compared to normal asphalt pavement Also according to the research conducted by Xu
Y.,Lindh C., Albin M. entitled “Occupational Exposure To Asphalt Mixture During Road Paving
Is Related To Increased Mitochondria DNA Copy Number: A Cross Sectional Study” (2018),
Workers exposed to the production of rubberized asphalt may experience oxidative stress due
to the inhalation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). All this health and environmental risk
that comes from the production of rubberized asphalt will be a large threat since people and
different environmental and health organization will oppose the production of rubberized
asphalt due to the negative effects that comes with it.