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Article history: The need for sustainable asphalt highway design and construction is becoming a priority within the
Received 18 November 2008 asphalt transportation industry. This trend is necessitated by the high diminishing rate of construction
Received in revised form 16 August 2009 materials, pressing demand on existing landfill sites, rising dumping fees, and reduced emissions into
Accepted 17 August 2009
the environment. Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) as sustainable aggregates in Hot Mix Asphalt
Available online 15 October 2009
(HMA) is therefore investigated in this research project. The objective of this study is to characterize
the mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures with recycled concrete aggregates for low volume roads
Keywords:
(herein, the equivalent standard axle load number is low). In this study, the RCA is substituted for Mich-
Mechanical properties
Asphalt mixtures
igan traprock virgin aggregates (VA) in a light traffic volume HMA (control mix) at the rate of 25, 35, 50
Recycled Concrete Aggregates and 75. The hybrid VA-RCA HMA is then assessed using the SuperpaveTM mix performance specifications.
Low volume roads The rutting potential using Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA), Dynamic Modulus (E*), Tensile Strength
Ratio (TSR) for moisture susceptibility, Indirect Tensile Test (IDT) resilient modulus and the Construction
Energy Index (CEI) are determined to evaluate the field performance suitability or otherwise of the mix.
All 4 hybrid VA-RCA HMA mixes passed the minimum rutting specification of 8 mm. The master curves
for the hybrid mixes showed that the dynamic stiffness of the hybrid mixes were less than that of the
control 4E1 mix, and it decreased when the RCA increased in the mix. In terms of moisture susceptibility,
the tensile strength ratio increased with decreasing RCA; with only the 75% of RCA in the mix failing to
meet the specification criterion. The compaction energy index proved that using RCA would save some
amount of compaction energy. It is recommended that a certain amount of RCA in HMA is acceptable
for low volume roads.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction sion reductions and energy savings. The overall gain to the tax-
payer cannot be under estimated.
Sustainable development in all spheres of civil transportation One potential material that has seen little investigation for its
infrastructure is gaining prominence for obvious and pertinent rea- recyclable use in asphalt pavements is Recycled Concrete Aggre-
sons. Transportation agencies, State Departments of Transporta- gates (RCA). RCA has seen promising results when utilized as or-
tion (DOTs), industry practitioners and contractors are all craving dinary aggregates, base aggregates and Portland Cement Concrete
for asphalt and concrete highway projects that typify a sustainable (PCC) aggregates in Texas, California, Minnesota, Michigan and
future. Virginia. In terms of RCA use in HMA, the States of Utah, Minne-
In the asphalt highway industry, a considerable number of inno- sota, Michigan, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, Illinois and Mississippi
vative materials and technologies are being explored to ascertain are the only ones using RCA on a limited scale.
their suitability for the design, construction and maintenance of RCA is obtained after the demolition of reinforced or plain ce-
these pavements. Warm mix asphalt (WMA), recycled asphalt ment concrete infrastructure. The initial demolition produces large
pavement (RAP), fly ash, bottom ash and shingles are some of the fractions of concrete which could be reduced into smaller units for
materials that transportation researchers believe holds the future diverse uses. The physical, chemical and mechanical properties of
to sustainability in the asphalt highway industry. RCA which are quite different from natural or virgin aggregates
In utilizing these materials, the resulting merits are highly sig- make it require extensive research to verify its suitability as a sus-
nificant. These benefits range from natural resource conservation, tainable aggregate in HMA.
optimization of landfill use, waste dumping charge savings, emis- The objective of this research is therefore to investigate the via-
bility of using RCA for a typical light duty or low-traffic Michigan
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 906 487 1059; fax: +1 906 487 1620.
asphalt highway. Some research investigations in the past have de-
E-mail addresses: jnmillsb@mtu.edu (J. Mills-Beale), zyou@mtu.edu (Z. You). fined RCA to encompass the broad range of crushed PCC from ap-
1
Tel.: +1 906 487 2528. proved mix designs used for structures and pavements, PCC from
0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2009.08.046
J. Mills-Beale, Z. You / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 230–235 231
other sources (patios, building slabs and other amounts of graded Better and improved use of RCA in HMA is unattainable without
aggregate base, sand subgrade and brick. This research, however, the thorough understanding of some of the basic material proper-
focuses on PCC from a Michigan Department of Transportation ties like the specific gravity and absorption. Researchers at Michi-
(MDOT) approved mix design for a project in Detroit, Michigan. gan Technological University [6–9] have explored further
The choice of a low traffic asphalt highway is necessitated by the automated, faster and better techniques or approaches at deter-
researchers hypothesis that RCA would perform better for low vol- mining the specific gravity and absorption of special fine and
ume highways (herein, the equivalent standard axle load number coarse aggregates like RCA using the SSDetect and Vacuum Satura-
is low); hence the conservatism. tion methods. These methods have proved to have great potential
in expediting the testing of RCA and other problematic fine and
coarse aggregates like mineral filler and high angularity aggre-
2. Background gates. The researchers are currently undertaking further work on
RCA specific gravity and absorption to add to the body of knowl-
RCA is being used in many transportation infrastructure appli- edge in the characterization of RCA.
cations such as in base aggregate, PCC aggregate, unbound and
bound pavement layers across the United States. Nevertheless, 3. Laboratory testing program
the use of RCA in HMA has seen limited use due to minimal re-
search investigations into its suitability. With rising transportation 3.1. Control mix
and disposal-related costs, depleting natural aggregate sources,
and landfill availability, using RCA in asphalt pavements is being Table 1 shows the detailed properties of the chosen 4E1 control
studied worldwide to determine its suitability or otherwise. In HMA. The design gradation curve of the mix is also provided in Ta-
studying the use of RCA in HMA, it is pertinent to understand ble 2. The choice of this 4E1 mix as a basis for designing the RCA
key aspects of its interaction with asphalt such as its absorptive hybrid mixes, with an Equivalent Standard Axle Load (ESAL) range
behavior under dynamic loading conditions. of 0.3–1 million ESALs, was based on the assumption that RCA will
Lee et al. [1] in a Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) perform better with low trafficked volume asphalt roads than
project in 1990 sought to establish the effect of asphalt and aggre- medium or higher ones.
gate properties on absorption in HMA. One key conclusion was the
proposition of coatings and sealants to minimize asphalt absorp- 3.2. SuperpaveTM aggregate specification tests on RCA
tion by porous aggregates like RCA.
A combination of reclaimed concrete building materials–waste To ascertain the fundamental and engineering properties of the
concrete, brick, and tile – has been evaluated to determine its po- RCA, the SuperpaveTM Aggregate Specification Tests below were
tential for use as aggregates in HMA [2]. Shen et al. used four aggre- followed:
gates types for the research project namely, 100% of igneous
crushed stone (control mix), 100% recycled building materials 1. Standard method of test for specific gravity (Gsb) and absorp-
(RBM), 50% coarse and fine RBM plus 50% coarse and 50% fine igne- tion (Wa%) of fine/coarse aggregates (AASHTO T-84-00 and
ous crushed stone (ICS) (50% RBM plus 50% ICS), and coarse RBM T-85-08).
plus fine ICS (C-RBM plus F-ICS). The C-RBM plus F-ICS mixture 2. Standard method of test for uncompacted void content% of
was identified as the best performing mix. The project proved that coarse aggregate (as influenced by particle shape, surface
the rutting failure potential was affected to a large extent by the texture, and grading) (AASHTO T326-05).
type of aggregate irrespective of the PG binder grade and test tem-
perature. Furthermore, the research established that the PG binder Table 1
Control HMA properties.
grade and aggregate types do not influence the resilient modulus
results at 25 °C, but they do affect resilient modulus results at 40 °C. HMA property Design parameter
The applicability of substituting common virgin aggregates with SuperpaveTM binder grade PG 52-34
waste concrete aggregates (RCA) has been shown to be promising Asphalt content 5.6%
[3] in Singapore. The noticeable finding in this research, which Air void 4.0%
used the Marshall Mix design method, was the fact that it is possi- Equivalent standard axle load 0.3–1 million
Mix temperature 137–143 °C
ble to use recycled concrete materials in HMA. Compaction temperature 126–130 °C
Other research work done on RCA has shown that except for air
voids%, all the volumetric properties of an RCA-based HMA, the
resilient modulus, and creep values were lower for the RCA HMA
than for a mix designed wholly with conventional natural aggre- Table 2
gates [4]. HMA aggregate gradation.
The use of RCA in HMA is being considered in a project being Sieve size Sieve size (mm) % Passing
undertaken by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Tech-
Coarse aggregate Fine aggregate
nical Advisory Group on Pavements. This project follows an earlier
Aggregate gradation, %
one-National Co-operative Highway Research Project (NCHRP) Pro-
1 ½ in. 37.5 100.0
ject 598 [5] – which investigated the performance-related behavior 1 in. 25 100.0
of RCA for use in unbound pavement layers. NCHRP Report 598 3/4 in. 19 100.0
gave the guidelines on some, if not all, of the natural and physical 1/2 in. 12.5 94.0
properties that need attention if RCA is to be used in miscellaneous 3/8 in. 9.5 86.3
#4 4.75 – 68.2
transportation infrastructural projects. In addition, another project #8 2.36 – 49.2
funded by the Federation Aviation Administration (FAA) evaluated # 16 1.18 – 38.4
if the alkali silica reactivity (ASR) in the aggregates will be a con- # 30 0.6 – 27.8
cern, since it is not well understood if the use of ASR-affected Recy- # 50 0.3 – 15.0
# 100 0.15 – 6.7
cled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) will impact the performance of
# 200 0.075 – 4.5
HMA pavements.
232 J. Mills-Beale, Z. You / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 230–235
mixtures. The test designation, ASTM D 4867/D 4867 M-04, % RCA vs. VFA
Standard Test Method for Effect of Moisture on Asphalt Concrete Pav- 80
VFA
65
18 2
4.2. Dynamic modulus at various temperatures and loading
R = 0.81 frequencies
16
The characterization of the mixes using the dynamic modulus
VMA
was done at 13, 21.3, and 39.2 °C, and 25, 10, 5, 1 and 0.1 Hz fre-
14 quencies. The mixes tested to date were the ones containing 25%,
35%, 50% and 75% of RCA. The results are provided in the form of
12 a logarithmic master curve in Fig. 4. The master curves were drawn
using the 2S2P1D model [11] and [12], for characterizing the visco-
10
elastic behavior of HMA. As hypothesized, as more and more RCA
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 was added to the HMA, the dynamic modulus or stiffness of the
% RCA mix decreased. Although, there are no minimum criteria limits
for the dynamic modulus results, further research is being under-
Fig. 1. Void in mineral aggregates (VMA) against RCA in HMA.
taken to utilize the results in the newly introduced Mechanistic
Fig. 2. Air void against RCA in HMA. Fig. 4. Dynamic modulus of selected VA-RCA.
234 J. Mills-Beale, Z. You / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 230–235
1800
1600
1400
ResilientModulus (MPa)
1200
1000
800
600 5 Deg. C
400
25 Deg. C
200
40 Deg. C
0
75% RCA 50% RCA 35% RCA 25% RCA 0% RCA
Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) to ascertain the resis- equipment compaction energy is expended during the initial com-
tance of RCA-VA hybrid mixes to pavement rutting, low-tempera- paction before the pavement is opened to traffic. As the RCA de-
ture and fatigue cracking. creases further, the energy savings become insignificant. This
could be explained by the fact that the imposed traffic loads are
4.3. IDT resilient modulus borne more by the stone-to-stone interlock between the stronger
VA.
The resilient modulus test results are shown in Fig. 5. Generally,
resilient modulus increased with decreasing RCA for all the three 4.5. Moisture susceptibility (tensile strength ratio)
temperatures. At the lowest test temperature of 5 °C, the resilient
is highest, indicating that the stiffest material condition under According to the ASTM D 4867/D 4867-M04 standard, the min-
recoverable deformation behavior. To assess the effect of RCA on imum permissible tensile strength ratio should be 80% in order to
the resilient modulus, the ANOVA test at 5% significance level have an asphalt mixture that sufficiently resists moisture and
was conducted. The analysis proved that the test temperature, water-related damage, otherwise known as stripping. At 25 °C,
i.e. 5, 25 and 40 °C were responsible for the differences in results, the moisture susceptibility using the indirect tensile strength ratio
more than the percent of RCA in the mix. According to the AASHTO test of the mix is shown in Fig. 7. It is revealed that as the RCA% in-
1993 pavement design guide, a higher resilient modulus is most creases, the degree of moisture susceptibility of the VA-RCA HMA
desirable to build a less thick pavement which still maintained is increased.
its structural integrity. Even though the standard is facing out,
these test results provide additional information on the relation-
4.6. Rutting failure potential
ship between the stiffness behaviors of the mix.
The results of the rutting failure potential of the APA samples
4.4. Construction energy index are plotted in Fig. 8. The figure shows the trend as the RCA% in
the VA-RCA HMA increases from 25%, 35%, and 50% to 75%, it can
The Construction Energy Index (CEI) of the VA-RCA mixes with be seen that at all four rates of RCA substitution in the mix, the
75%, 50%, 35% and 25% of RCA substituted for the VA is assessed MDOT maximum specification limit for permanent deformation,
using the theory proposed by Mahmoud and Bahia [10]. The which is 8 mm is satisfied. Additionally, as the RCA in the mix in-
hypothesis is that the CDI can be used to determine the relative creases, there is a corresponding increase in the rutting or perma-
amounts of energy saved by the SuperpaveTM Gyratory Compactor nent deformation. Between 25% and 35% of RCA in the HMA, there
(SGC) equipment when a VA-RCA asphalt mixture is placed and
compacted in the field. Test results shown in Fig. 6 indicate that
as RCA decreases in the mix, the CEI increases; meaning more
Minimum Specification Limit
3500
Construction Energy Index (CEI)
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
75% RCA 50% RCA 35% RCA 25% RCA 0% RCA
Fig. 6. Construction energy index test results. Fig. 7. Results of the moisture susceptibility tests.
J. Mills-Beale, Z. You / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 230–235 235
10 Acknowledgements
25% VA - 75% RCA
50% VA - 50% RCA
8 65% VA - 35% RCA The authors acknowledge the funding of this project from the
Rutting depth (mm)
75% VA - 25% RCA United States Department of Transportation through the Univer-
100% VA - 0% RCA sity Transportation Center for Materials in Sustainable Transporta-
6
tion Infrastructure at Michigan Technological University. This
research could not have been completed without the significant
4 contributions of undergraduate students Kelly Heidbrier, Kari
Klaboe, and John Butler in running some lab tests at Michigan
2 Technological University. The lab tests were conducted in the Cen-
ter of Excellence for Transportation Materials (Transportation
Materials Research Center), which is partnered between Michigan
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 Department of Transportation and Michigan Technological Univer-
Nuumber of load cycles sity. The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to Jim Viv-
ian and Ed Tulpo in the Center of Excellence for Transportation
Fig. 8. Rutting depth of the HMA over 8000 cycles loading.
Materials at Michigan Technological University. The contents of
this article do not necessarily reflect the official views and policies
is a permanent deformation increase of 8.1%. The percent increases of any institution or agency.
further to 37.85% as RCA increases from 35% to 50% RCA, and finally
76%, as RCA increases from 50% to 75%. The control mix (0% RCA), References
as expected had the least rutting of 1.14 mm after 8000 cycles of
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