Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Review

Current status and development of terminal blend tyre rubber modified

asphalt
Lili Han a, Mulian Zheng a,⇑, Chongtao Wang b
a
Key Laboratory for Special Area Highway Engineering of Ministry of Education, Chang’an University, Mid South Erhuan Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710064, China
b
First Highway Consultants Co., Ltd., 63 Kejier Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710075, China

h i g h l i g h t s

 Basic concepts of terminal blend (TB) crumb rubber modified binder were reviewed.
 Applications, advantages and concerns of TB rubberized binder were presented.
 Incorporation of warm mix additives in TB binder was summarized.
 Composite modification to TB binder using various modifiers was overviewed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Wet process Asphalt Rubber (AR) with well-proven advantages such as good anti-rutting and cracking
Received 19 August 2016 resistant performances has obtained great advancement since 1930s. Nevertheless, the AR suffers from
Received in revised form 11 October 2016 serious problems: it is too viscous to handle and needs special continuous agitating unit to avoid phase
Accepted 14 October 2016
segregation. However, a good alternative is wet process Terminal Blend (TB) rubberized binder which is
Available online 27 October 2016
different from AR in terms of manufacturing process, modification mechanism and binder performance.
Although been considered as a viable competitor against polymer modified asphalt, TB binder has not
Keywords:
received extensive application due to some concerns. The present paper aimed to provide a comprehen-
Crumb rubber modified asphalt
Wet process
sive overview on TB recycled tyre rubber modified binder in terms of basic terminology, binder process-
Terminal blend ing, performance evaluation, applications and primary limitations. Most importantly, the latest
Composite modification progresses in TB binders and their limitations were introduced based on up-to-date researches. Special
emphases were laid on the composite modification to TB asphalts using various modifiers such as poly-
mers, acids, nano material and natural rock asphalt. In addition, the combination of currently prevailing
warm mix additives with TB rubberized binder was also summarized and discussed.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
2. Terminal blend crumb rubber modified asphalt technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
2.1. Terminology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
2.2. Processing and preparation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
2.3. Material characterization and performance evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
2.4. Field applications and pilot projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
2.4.1. hot mix overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
2.4.2. chip seal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
2.5. Benefits, concerns and limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
3. Development of terminal blend binder technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
3.1. High temperature binder performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
3.2. Thermal storage stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: chdhanlili@yahoo.com (L. Han), zhengml@chd.edu.cn (M. Zheng), 81045449@qq.com (C. Wang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.10.080
0950-0618/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
400 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409

3.3. TB asphalts with warm mix technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

3.4. Composite modification to TB binder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
3.4.1. CR + polymer/acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
3.4.2. CR + nano material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
3.4.3. CR + rock asphalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
4. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

1. Introduction viscosity (greater than 1500 cP at 177 °C) of AR binder could

Most industrialized countries and regions in current world e.g.
the European Union, United States, China, Japan as well as Aus-
tralia etc. are facing serious situations and challenges from disposal
of solid wastes such as end-of-life tyres from automobile industry.
According to statistics, approximately 1.4 billion used tyres are
produced each year and the anticipated number is about to
increase due to the sharp increase in motor vehicle ownership
and rapid growth in traffic volume [1–6]. Historically, these used
tyres were often stockpiled in open plant and then land-filled with-
out any processing. However, due to the potential threat to envi-
ronment and public health (fire disaster, bacteria breeding), now
land-filling waste tyres has been declined in most nations.
Whereas other disposal manners that could recycle rubber materi-
als in these tyres were encouraged by many environment protec-
tive organizations and resource reclamation groups. By the
shredding and chipping process on a whole tyre combined with
the removing procedure of steel and fabric, the tyre chips are fur-
ther ground at ambient temperature or cryogenically in the pres-
ence of liquid nitrogen to produce crumb rubber powder which
is one of the most accepted bitumen modifiers in asphalt pave-
ment. There has been a long history of incorporating Crumb Rubber
Modifier (CRM) into paving asphalt mixtures since 1930 s due to
the advantages of good deformation and fatigue resistance, echo-
friendly characteristics as well as noise reduction effect [1–7].
Asphalt mixtures containing crumb rubber can be produced by
mainly two processes: the wet process and dry process [8–10].
Rubber chips adopted in the dry process are usually as coarse as
fine aggregate and are chiefly used to substitute for a portion of
fine aggregate in the mixture [11]. While in the wet process, rubber
crumbs act more as binder modifiers which are blended in the first
place with hot base asphalt to prepare modified binder prior to
mixing with aggregates. Since the dry process is not as widely
applied as the wet process because of the mixed reviews for its
performance [12–14], this paper mainly concentrates on the wet
process CRM modified asphalt technology.
The wet process rubber modified asphalt technology has gained
sufficient development after nearly one century of experience and
practice. In the literature, ample researches have reported the pro-
cessing variables, physical and rheological performances as well as
possible applications of CRM modified asphalts [15–20]. Generally,
the wet process could produce two totally different modified
asphalts known as Asphalt Rubber (AR or wet process-high viscos-
ity) and Terminal Blend (TB or wet process no-agitation) binder.
The ASTM D8 has given an authoritative definition of AR which
contains coarser rubber particles (minus 30 mesh) and greater rub-
ber dosage (minimum 15% by weight of virgin asphalt) [21]. The
modification of crumb rubber in AR primarily relies on the swelling
mechanism. During the swelling process, some polymer chains in
the rubber absorb a fraction of aromatic oils in base bitumen, caus-
ing the rubber to swell and soften and forming a gel-like structure.
Contemporaneously there is a reduction in the oil fraction and an
increase in the rubber particle size in the blend, which probably
accounts for the viscosity elevation of the binder. The high
enhance the mixture asphalt content without excessive bleeding
or draining out. Additionally, asphalt mixtures containing rubber
particles usually showed lower modulus and good rubber elasticity
[10] than conventional dense graded asphalt concrete due to high
elastic recovery of CRM binder. Therefore well-proven resistance to
rutting and reflective cracking as well as thermal cracking were
reported considering asphalt rubber mixtures [2,19,20]. At present,
some mature technical specifications for asphalt rubber have been
published by a number of states such as the US, South Africa, Aus-
tralia etc. [2,9,22]. This kind of CRM modified binder is mostly used
in the open and gap grade hot mix asphalt overlays, Stress Absorb-
ing Membrane Interlay (SAMI), chip seal and cape seal. However,
some limitations were found due to the exorbitant high viscosity
and specific processing of AR [2,22,23]. On the one hand, AR bin-
ders are hard to handle because of the poor workability and are
unable to store over a long period due to the phase segregation
issue. On the other hand, the swelling process usually needs con-
tinuous agitating to the blend to maintain a full interaction of
the rubber and bitumen. This poses strict requirement to the
blending and manufacturing equipment of the mixture. In face of
the limitations of traditional AR, a good alternative known as wet
process terminal blend that overcomes the viscosity issue by using
less and finer CRM (plus 30 mesh,<10% originally) and by introduc-
ing high temperature shearing has gained increasing interest since
the 1980s [2,10,23–25]. Unlike the swelling mechanism of AR bin-
der, the TB technology primarily relies on the desulfurization or
depolymerization of rubber in the hot bitumen and the full disper-
sion of rubber in the blend to obtain a homogeneous and stable
modified binder. It is more like a polymer modified binder since
there is no need for special agitating augers or paddles
[2,9,13,25]. Researchers found that TB binder holds many advan-
tages such as low viscosity, good workability, especially applicable
to dense graded mixture etc. and it could be used nearly in all fields
that traditional AR can be used [2,10,13,23–25]. Currently, the TB
asphalt is characterized and evaluated using the Performance
Grade (PG) specification like a polymer modified bitumen in CAL-
TRANS [2,10,13]. Faced with the situation that the price of polymer
bitumen modifiers would continue to grow in the foreseeable
future, CRM binders which hold comparable properties to polymer
modified asphalts are showing great economic advantages [13,25–
27], especially the less viscous terminal blend binders. However,
the TB binder yet presents some major issues before its widespread
application in the engineering. For example, the deformation and
fatigue resistance of TB might be discounted by the reduced viscos-
ity and lost rubber elasticity due to the desulfurization effect
[2,25,28,29]. Although several field projects verified the compara-
ble performance of TB applications to its AR or Styrene-
Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) counterparts, there is still a lack of enough
evidence on its long term performance validation [2,10,13,23].
Additionally, with the rubber content being enhanced to nearly
20% in recent studies, the thermal stability of TB has emerged as
a new problem [2,13,25]. Other concerns such as lack of unified
definition or terminology, fume or odor emissions etc. can also pre-
vent this new technology from rapid developing [2,10,13].
 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409
In view of this, the present paper aimed to provide a compre-
hensive overview on the wet process terminal blend crumb rubber
modified binder in terms of basic terminology, binder processing,
material performance evaluation and testing method, possible
applications and primary limitations. Most importantly, the latest
progresses in TB technology were introduced based on up-to-
date researches and the corresponding limitations and concerns
were discussed. Special emphases were paid to the composite
modification technology to TB asphalts using various modifiers
such as polymers, acids, nano material and natural rock asphalt.
In addition, the combination of the currently prevailing wax or
chemical warm mix additives with TB binder was also summarized
and discussed. This work is expected to provide a fundamental and
comprehensive information on wet process terminal blend tech-
nology, which would play a role in accelerating the development
of TB rubberized binders.
2. Terminal blend crumb rubber modified asphalt technology
2.1. Terminology
Terminal blend tyre rubber modified binder belongs to the fam-
ily of McDonald wet process technology. Although it is also the
product of wet process, this kind of binder distinguishes greatly
from widely accepted wet process AR in that it holds lower rota-
tional viscosity at 177 °C, typically less than 1500 cP according to
the CALTRANS specification [2,10,25]. Moreover, the appearance
of the finished product for terminal blends is homogeneous and
smooth without visibly discrete particles, whereas wet process
AR binder shows a rough and granular surface as shown in Fig. 1.
In CALTRANS Asphalt Rubber Usage Guide [9], TB is ‘‘a form of the
wet process where crumb rubber modifier is blended with hot
asphalt binder at the refinery or at an asphalt binder storage and
distribution terminal and transported to the asphalt concrete mix-
ing plant or job site for use”. No subsequent agitation is reportedly
mandatory for such binder to keep the ground tyre rubber particles
evenly dispersed in the matrix binder. In the past, terminal blends
normally contained 10% or less finely ground CRM by mass (much
lower than the ASTM D 8 demand 15% for AR) and a few polymers
to eliminate the need for agitation. However, current researches
have reported TB binder that contains 15 % CRM by weight of base
binder [2,13,25]. TBs are typically processed by using 30 mesh or
finer CRM to modify base binder to ensure that ground rubber par-
ticles be broken down quickly or be dispersed stably by normal cir-
culation within the storage tank rather than by agitation with
special augers or paddles. These binders were once named rubber
modified binder and have already been included in CALTRANS
Modified Binder (MB) and the Greenbook MAC-10TR specification.
Similarly, according to the Asphalt Institution’s definition [30],
the TB binder comprises three main components: liquid asphalt,
recycled tyre rubber and synthetic rubber. As its name implies, this
binder is typically manufactured at an asphalt refinery or terminal
under strict quality controls, which ensures that the rubber be
Fig. 1. Appearance of wet process AR(left,) and TB binder (right,) adapted from [2,25] (AR:8–10 mesh,18–22 wt.% crumb rubber; TB:40–80 mesh,5–15 wt.% crumb rubber.)
401
completely digested into the base asphalt with a solubility more
than 98%. As a result, a smooth and homogeneous compound is
yielded.
The Rubberized Asphalt Concrete Technical Assistance of Califor-
nia’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle)
[10] also defines TB as ‘‘CRM modified binders that do not require
constant agitation to keep discrete rubber particles uniformly dis-
tributed in the hot asphalt cement”. Interestingly, the term ‘‘termi-
nal blend” is originally used to denominate this binder since most
of them were produced at an asphalt terminal where the asphalt is
stored and distributed. However, such binders can also be manu-
factured in the field or at the asphalt mixture plant, therefore
another terminology ‘‘wet process no-agitation” is now more pre-
ferred than terminal blend to avoid misleading.
It should be mentioned in the Republic of South Africa (RSA),
CRM modified asphalt is called bitumen-rubber which has been
extensively applied and the South African Asphalt Academy (AsAc)
has already promulgated technical guideline on bitumen-rubber
binder:TG1 [22]. According to this guideline, bitumen-rubber is a
complex two phase blend of bitumen and rubber, containing
extender oil and diluents or not. This kind of binder also uses high
shear mixing process of roughly 3000 RPM at 180 °C. The rubber
crumbs should completely pass the 1.18 mm sieve and the base
bitumen is preselected according to climate conditions, usually
be the SABITA B12 or B8 (60/70 or 80/100 penetration grade binder
respectively) road grade bitumen. On the whole, the bitumen-
rubber is similar to commonly adopted wet process high viscosity.
However, it is slightly different from AR in terms of raw materials,
binder production processes and performance indexes. For
instance, the RSA bitumen-rubber uses finer rubber crumbs than
wet process AR and is strict with rubber manufacture technique
and rubber grading. Moreover, the resultant mechanisms of these
two kinds of binders are not necessarily identical. In detail,
improvement in the performances of AR largely depends on the
swelling of rubber in hot asphalt whereas the RSA bitumen-
rubber emphasizes both the swelling and depolymerisation of rub-
ber to obtain a non-homogeneous yet stable modified binder. In
addition, the performance evaluation indexes of them are slightly
different. A case in point is the viscosity index, the AR typically
should meet the minimum rotational viscosity of 1500 cP at
177 °C whereas that for the bitumen-rubber at 190 °C must be
greater than 2000 cP. It seems that the latter holds a much greater
high temperature viscosity. It was found that the viscosity of
bitumen-rubber changes a great deal with digestion temperature,
time and energy consumed during the process. Once the digestion
time is long enough, the sulphur-sulphur cross link bonds in the
rubber molecules start to thermally dissociate, and then the oil
and lighter fractions of the bitumen diffuse into the rubber parti-
cles, leading to a decrease in the binder viscosity. Typically,
bitumen-rubbers with a viscosity of less than 2000 cP is labeled
as ‘‘over digested” or ‘‘terminal” which is similar to terminal blends
in this paper. Nevertheless, the South Africa specification does not
give more information on ‘‘terminal” as CALTRANS code does
402 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409

2.2. Processing and preparation

The wet process terminal blend technology aims to use recycled

Fig. 2. Terminal blend binder manufacture system, adapted from [2].
tyre rubber as a modifier to produce storage stable modified bitu-
men. Originally, this binder was often produced in a refinery or at
an asphalt terminal, however nowadays they may also be field-
blended at the asphalt plant. The manufacture process of terminal
blend uses a continuous blending-reaction system which resem-
bles that of the conventional polymer modified asphalt since no
additional adjustments or modifications to the asphalt plants are
needed. No reaction tanks or special agitating augers or paddles
like for wet process high-viscosity are needed.
According to the CALTRANS technical guideline, special atten-
tions were paid to the mixing temperature, blend technique, pres-
sure and reaction time in producing terminal blend binders
[2,10,13]. Typical procedure for manufacturing terminal blend bin-
der is as follows.
The base binder is firstly heated up to almost 200 °C and fed
with certain amount of 30 mesh or finer CRM powder (depends
upon the CR content, usually 10 wt% base bitumen) by using high
shearing conditions. The shearing rate is usually a few thousands
(3000–8000) RPM lasts for 40–60 min, and some researchers also
emphasized higher pressure more than 1 atm [2]. Under such high
curing condition, the typical swelling process of asphalt rubber is
replaced by the depolymerisation or devulcanisation of the rubber
into the matrix asphalt, resulting in a smooth binder product [31].
The manufacture system of terminal blend binder frequently pro-
duced at an asphalt terminal is depicted in Fig. 2.

mainly because over digestion is thought to impair the elasticity
and high temperature performance of the final rubberized binder.
In China, rubberized asphalt mixture especially by the wet pro-
cess has also gained wide attention from researchers and road
maintenance departments. But up to date there has not established
mature technical guideline on rubberized asphalt, even with the
commonly preferred wet process [4–6]. Further, no clear distin-
guishes were made between high-viscosity and terminal blend
binders in terms of rubber and bitumen property, processing vari-
ables as well as binder performance evaluation.
2.3. Material characterization and performance evaluation
At present, the performance evaluation of terminal blend rub-
berized asphalt in the US follows the PG grading system, namely
PG-TR system which is similar to conventional polymer modified
asphalt. The Nevada and California specifications for terminal
blend asphalt are shown in Table 1 [32]. Among the PG-TR grades,
the PG76-22TR is the most commonly used one [13,32]. The per-
formance grade ensures that TB binder could meet the engineering
requirements for veering climates and additionally, it could also

Table 1
Performance grade specification of TBs in Nevada and California [32].

Tests NDOT CALTRANS

PG64-28TR PG76-22TR PG64-28TR PG76-22TR
Original
Flash point, °CP 230 230 230 230
Solubility, % P 99.0 99.0 97.5 97.5
135 °C viscosity, Pa
s 6 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
Dynamic shear G⁄/sind,kPa P Temp., °C 1.0 1.3 1.0 1.0
64 76 64 76
4 °C ductility,5 cm/min,cm P 50 20 – –
Toughness, in-lb P 110 – – –
Tenacity, in-lb P 75 – – –
RTFO aged binder
Mass loss,% 6 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Dynamic shear G⁄/sind,kPa P Temp., °C 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.2
64 76 64 76
Phase angle d, °C6 – – 80 80
4 °C ductility,5 cm/min,cm P 25 10 – –
25 °C elastic recovery,% P – – 75 65
PAV aged binder
PAV ageing temp., °C 100 110 100 110
Dynamic shear G⁄sind,kPa 6 Temp., °C 5000 5000 5000 5000
22 31 22 31
Creep stiffness S, MPa 6 Temp., °C 300 300 300 300
18 12 18 12
m value at 60sec P Temp., °C 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
18 12 18 12
 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409
Table 2
CALTRANS MB and Greenbook specification for TB binder[10,13].
Agency Greenbook
Binder designation MAC-10TR
Original physical properties
CRM content, % P10
Viscosity@60 °C/135 °C, Pa
s P500/61
25 °C needle penetration,0.1 mm 40–60
Softening point °C P53
4 °C needle penetration 0.1 mm P20
Shear susceptibility of d and viscosity – SSD P 30(0.6 + SSV)3 @25 °C,CT381
Tests on RTFO residue
Retained penetration ratio @25 °C,% of original P50
d < 97–6(logG⁄) and G⁄/sind P 4.0 kPa@10 rad/s,@ °C – 64
4 °C needle penetration P14
25 °C needle penetration 20–40
60 °C dynamic viscosity, Pa
s P2000
135 °C kinematic viscosity cSt 61500
S 6 300 MPa, m P 0.3,60sec, @ °C – 8
Shear susceptibility of d and viscosity – SSD P
guarantee good binder durability and elastic recovery properties
even at lower temperatures.
Actually, long before the PG grading of rubberized asphalt, two
specific grade systems applicable to terminal blend binders had
been proposed and applied. One of them is the CALTRANS modified
binder specification (Table 2) developed in the 1990 s. This code
included the terminal blend rubberized asphalt, in which the Cali-
fornia Test (CT), Shear Susceptibility of Viscosity (SSV), Shear Sus-
ceptibility of Delta (SSD), and Rolling Thin Film Oven (RTFO) tests
were applied to assess the binder properties. For another, the
Greenbook section 600–5.2.1 also incorporated one item for termi-
nal blend binder, for instance the MAC-10TR was specified to guide
the characterization of TB binders. As shown in Table 2, the MAC-
10TR could be graded and evaluated using the viscosity, needle
penetration, softening point and the RTFO tests.
Up to date, the PG grade system seems to be more preferred in
the performance evaluating of terminal blend binders since there is
no better choice. However, some researchers argued that the con-
ventional gap size and plate geometry in the Dynamic Shear
Rheometer (DSR) test may not be suitable for rubberized asphalt
[22] since even in terminal blend binder there still remains some
discernible rubber particles after digestion. Moreover, the rota-
tional viscosity measurement using a standard Brookfield spindle
also presents issues due to potential phase segregation of rubber
and asphalt matrix [22,33]. In fact, Lo Presti et al. adapted the vis-
cometry for CRM binder by using a dual helical impeller to create a
convective like flow within the sample to minimize phase separa-
tion [33], which could be learnt for evaluation of terminal blends.
However, more work is needed to develop more appropriate per-
formance assessing tests and methods for terminal blend rubber-
ized binder.
2.4. Field applications and pilot projects
Wet process TB was originally developed in the mid 1980s and
found its initial use in Florida and Texas in the US. Since then, some
other states embarked on the related research and application due
to its good workability and comparable engineering performances
relative to wet process AR. TB binders could be used in any cases
where traditional AR applies. Furthermore it is especially applica-
ble to dense graded asphalt mixture to which high viscosity AR
does not apply due to lack of enough mix void volume to accom-
modate elevated binder content. The reported application of termi-
nal blend rubber modified asphalt covers nearly all paving and
maintenance practices such as: dense grade hot mixture, open/gap
grade mixture, hot applied chip seal etc. [2,10,13].
403
Caltrans
MB-4 MB-5 MB-6 MB-7
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –
64 64 70
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –
19 30 8
115SSV-50.6 @25 °C,CT381
2.4.1. hot mix overlay
CALTRANS has long been committed to the investigation and
application of TB and has taken great effort in the performance
comparison of TB with AR and polymer modified bitumen. As a
result, several important projects in California were constructed
consequently for sake of long term field performance comparison.
The following paragraphs give more detailed information on the
field TB projects.
In 2002, CALTRANS constructed totally five different projects to
figure out if the newly proposed contractor warranty requirement
for Rubberized Asphalt Concrete (RAC) were viable and cost effec-
tive, and on the other hand, to evaluate the performance of RAC
[13]. Among five pilot projects, the Highway 395 located in Lassen
County is the only one with TB binder. This project is in a desert
area with an elevation of 1280 m above sea level and its pavement
adopted 60 mm dense graded asphalt concrete overlay using a ter-
minal blend MB-D binder (with 15% rubber). Five years after its
completion, field survey in 2009 showed this project was in good
condition with minor distress noted. Another overlay experimental
project is the Fresno Highway 33 which consisted of nine test sec-
tions including traditional dense graded asphalt concrete, wet or
dry process rubberized asphalt mixture [13]. The mixtures using
terminal blended binders were MB-G and MB-D. This project was
constructed in 2005 and was post-evaluated four years later. The
evaluation revealed that the MB-D and MB-G were superior to
dry process and other wet process binders. In addition, the field
projects verified that terminal blends are better suited for use in
dense graded mixes than in gap graded mixes and they can never
be used to simply replace high viscosity AR. Notably, this project
also witnessed bleeding on MB-G sections due to low voids in
the mineral aggregate and less air void content in such mix. How-
ever, no bleeding issues were observed on the dense graded TB
mixes.
2.4.2. chip seal
The Section 7–11 chip seal projects placed in November 2008
on Highway 86 near Westmoreland consisted of five field or termi-
nal blended rubberized asphalt test sections [13]. The main pur-
pose of this project is to validate one national specification and
to check for construction variability of chip seals. The finding of
this study after 2 years of performance in the harsh California
desert climate showed that terminal blended asphalts performed
the same as field blended products or polymer modified binders.
Additionally, under the grant offered by California Integrated
Waste Management Board (CIWMB), the LA County public works
department built two TB chip seal demonstration projects using
404 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409
PG 76-22TR binder supplied by Paramount Petroleum [13]. After
two years in service, the chip seal projects performed well.
In 2010, the California Pavement Preservation Center (CPC)
along with California State University implemented an extensive
survey of field testing sections and pilot projects of TB placed in
the US [13]. Their report summarized 24 hot mix projects using dif-
ferent binder grading systems as MB、MAC-10TR、MAC-15TR and
PG70-22TR, 30 chip seal projects using PG76-22TR binder and 28
slurry seal projects in California.
TB has also been used in other states. Its uses in Arizona and
Nevada are similar to that in California. In Arizona, main applica-
tion of TB is focused on hot mix, and in 2009 the Arizona Depart-
ment Of Transportation (DOT) used totally 2600 tons of TB hot
mixture supplied by Paramount Petroleum and Wright Asphalt
Products company [13]. The quantity is expected to increase fur-
ther. In case of Nevada, TB application includes chip seal and hot
mix asphalt. However, unlike California, Arizona and Nevada, TB
uses in other states are slightly different in that the rubber content
is a bit lower compared to that adopted in the former three states.
2.5. Benefits, concerns and limitations
High viscosity AR and TB are different and should not be inter-
changed. The main differences between them lie in the viscosity
and their storage stability. TB binders are more likely to compete
with conventional polymer modified bitumen than AR. The widely
accepted benefits of using TB include [2,10,13]:
(1) No need for special agitating equipments at the asphalt
plant.
(2) Easy for engineers to use according to traditional manufac-
turing process.
(3) Mixing, laying and compacting temperatures are compara-
ble to polymer modified mixtures .
(4) Applicable to nearly all mixture type.
(5) The binder can be performance graded and used as
emulsion.
(6) Superior low temperature performance to AR and particu-
larly suitable for cold regions.
However, there still remains some problems with TB binders
such as absence of clear universal definition, lack of enough evi-
dence on its long term performance, unclear mixture moisture sus-
ceptibility, inadequate use of TB mixtures in cold climates as well
as difficulty to verify the CRM amount used. These issues must be
addressed prior to the widespread use of TB.
3. Development of terminal blend binder technology
Due to the pronounced merits such as well-suited to dense
grade hot mix asphalt, good adaptability to polymer modified
asphalt manufacturing system as well as comparable properties
relative to polymer modified bitumen, the wet process terminal
blend has been paid great attention during the past few decades.
A number of well-documented laboratory and field work have
reported its comparable or even better performance with reference
to traditional wet process asphalt rubber and the successful appli-
cation [2,13,23,24,27]. However, investigations into this binder
should never stop since it is not a perfect technology which still
presents some issues during its application. There are mainly three
performance or environment related issues which need to be
addressed urgently. First, some researchers argued that the high
temperature binder performance of TB might be discounted by
high curing condition since the rubber elasticity in TB was dam-
aged by the depolymerisation effect [2,22,25,28,29]. Second, TB
binder still presents phase segregation problems especially at high
temperature due to the property differences among constituents in
the blend although it is much more smooth than AR. Finally, termi-
nal blend technology seems to increase many environmental issues
along with asphalt rubber technology since both of them require
high temperature during the production, haul and compaction of
mixtures containing recycled tyre rubber. To these issues, many
researchers tried hard to improve the related properties of termi-
nal blends and this section provides a review on the development
of TB technology in terms of high temperature binder performance,
thermal stability as well as the application of warm mix asphalt
technique in this material.
3.1. High temperature binder performance
It is widely accepted the high viscosity that is indispensable to
elevated mix binder content without draining out or bleeding
mainly accounted for the excellent resistance to reflective or fati-
gue cracking of AR. Nevertheless, in case of TB, the binder viscosity
is significantly reduced by the high curing condition and the rubber
elasticity is also damaged. It could be inferred that the binder per-
formance of TB such as anti-rutting performance, resistance to fati-
gue or reflective cracking might be impaired. However, this issue
has been noticed long before and a number of technical measures
have been proposed up to date to ensure a good high temperature
performance [2,10,25,28].
These measures include:
(1) Increasing crumb rubber content. In the past, rubber content
for TB generally did not exceed 10% by mass of asphalt. How-
ever, technicians in Texas found that greater rubber concen-
tration could contribute to considerable improvement in
high temperature binder performance [34]. They performed
comparative tests on TB binders with 8% and 12% rubber
using the PG 64–22 plain binder and found that the high
temperature PG grade was enhanced by one and two
degrees respectively compared to plain binder [34]. Never-
theless, this measure should be used with caution since
exorbitant rubber content was shown to increase the poten-
tial risk of phase separation and, most importantly, went
beyond the scope of TB and weakened the advantages of
TB technology.
(2) Using high natural rubber. Natural rubber is a crude high-
molecular polymer whose main constituent is poly-
isoprene. As its name implies, this rubber is mainly obtained
from the latex drained out from the hevea brasiliensis. After
proper filtration and solidification, the latex becomes natu-
ral rubber which shows good elasticity, durability and
anti-fatigue performance. The CALTRANS Rubberized Asphalt
Concrete: Application and Usage defines high natural rubber
as scrap rubber product that includes 40–48% natural rubber
or isoprene and a minimum of 50% rubber hydrocarbon
[9,10]. High natural CRM is frequently recycled from heavy
truck tyres, tennis balls and mat rubber, and this type of rub-
ber was effective in improving the high temperature perfor-
mance of rubber modified binders. The CALTRANS now
encourages the use of high natural rubber in wet process
rubber binders to ensure a satisfactory binder performance.
(3) Feeding with chemical reagent A small amount of research
also reported the possibility of chemical pre-treating of
CRM or directional addition of chemicals in the blend to
improve TB property. For instance, Kocevski claimed that
pre-treating CRM with acrylic acid could increase the binder
viscosity and high temperature performance [35]. Yadollahi
found that poly phosphoric acid and Vestenamer (a product
of Trans-polyOctenamer Rubber, TOR) could significantly
 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409
improve the performance grade of bitumen at high, interme-
diate and low temperatures [36]. However, as a chemical
reactant, the main contributes of TOR lies in lowering the
binder viscosity and hence reducing the handling tempera-
ture of the mixture. Whereas its effect on binder high tem-
perature performance was not significant [36]. TOR was
primarily used in the dry process to produce rubberized
mixtures and the high cost of rubberized asphalt mixture
containing TOR also prevented its wide use. In terms of rub-
ber pre-treating, sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen perox-
ide were also used, but results showed the binder
deformation resistance was not significantly affected
whereas hydrogen peroxide treatment greatly reduced
phase separation [2,37].
3.2. Thermal storage stability
Actually, measures that would improve the high temperature
performance of TB such as increasing CRM content may aggravate
the potential of phase segregation. Therefore, ample work was
done to enhance the compatibility between virgin binder and
CRM particle and then to improve the thermal storage stability of
TB.
A Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study revealed that
adding chemicals that generated free radicals in the blend could
strengthen the interface bond between asphalt and rubber and
then improve the storage stability [7,38]. Shatanawi also found
that furfural extract oil was effective in improving the storage sta-
bility of TB [39]. Similarly, according to current literature, conju-
gated diene polymer, Poly Phosphoric Acid (PPA), hydrosilylation
catalysts, fluid catalytic cracking slurry and sulfur-based cross link-
ing agents were also reported to be effective in alleviating the
phase separation tendency in terminal blend binders [35,36,40–
43]. Other than the chemical method, Attia suggested that lower-
ing the storage temperature could be an economical and simple
way which may achieve the same effect [44]. Additionally, Shata-
nawi found that hot water activation of crumb rubber in CRM bin-
ders could improve the compatibility between bitumen and
rubber, and hence decrease the segregation potential. However,
rheological properties of the activated binder did not show
improvement [45].
3.3. TB asphalts with warm mix technology
Originated in Europe in the mid 1990s, the Warm Mix Asphalt
(WMA) technology aims at reducing binder viscosity or decreasing
interface friction between aggregate and binder, which in conse-
quence decreases the production and placement temperature of
mixtures, extends paving season and cuts fuel consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, although various WMA tech-
niques are available in the market they can be basically divided
into three categories according to their working principle: the
foaming technology, organic additives as well as chemical promot-
ing agents. The combination of above warm techniques with con-
ventional Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) has been extensively
investigated and temperature reduction for conventional HMA
could reach 30–50 °C. However, in the case of rubberized asphalt
mixture, related researches are far from enough since recycled rub-
ber modified asphalt holds greater viscosity than conventional
asphalt binder and its composition is more complicated. This sec-
tion summarizes the application and effect of warm mix technol-
ogy on the terminal blend rubber modified binders.
As mentioned previously, there are mainly three types of warm
mix techniques. But only two of them appeared to be applicable to
rubberized asphalt mixture due to their easy controllability and
mastery, which are the organic and chemical additive warm mix
405
technology. Typically used warm mix additives include Sasobit,
Evotherm and Advera. In the literature, quite a number of work
reported the use of WMA in wet process AR mixtures [46]. For
instance, Song found from his lab experiment that the temperature
reduction for mixture compaction under the same void ratio
reached 20–25 °C, 15–20 °C and 30–35 °C respectively for asphalt
rubber mixture with Sasobit, TOR and Evotherm. A field investiga-
tion in Australia in 2006 verified that the incorporation of Sasobit
in AR mixtures could reduce the mixing temperature by 20 °C.
Moreover, fume emissions in the processing field was evidently
reduced for mixture with Sasobit. In addition, the Heide laboratory
in Germany found that Sasobit was also effective in increasing the
mixture rutting resistance [47].
Unlike asphalt rubber mixtures, only few limited investigations
were reported in terms of warm mix terminal blend rubber mix-
tures. Kim found adding Sasobit and Leadcap wax additives into
terminal blend binder could increase the mixture rutting resis-
tance [48]. Particularly, the Leadcap could lower the BBR stiffness
of TB binder [48]. An investigation of Neveda Reno University in
2010 sponsored by the Paramount Petroleum Corporation revealed
preliminarily that the effect of warm additive on the moisture sus-
ceptibility of TB asphalt mixture was comparable to that of con-
ventional polymer modified asphalt mixture [49]. However, the
long term effect of warm mix additives on the permanent deforma-
tion resistance, anti-fatigue performance and thermal cracking
resistance of TB mixtures in this project are being implemented.
It is anticipated that the related research results, once accom-
plished, would provide valuable information in guiding the appli-
cation of warm mix terminal blend asphalt mixtures.
3.4. Composite modification to TB binder
As previously mentioned, the engineering performance of TB
binders may be impaired by the excessive depolymerisation of
crumb rubber under high curing condition. Therefore, numerous
measures were proposed to compensate for the lost viscosity and
rubber elasticity to ensure a good engineering performance.
Among these measures, composite modification to TB using vari-
ous organic or inorganic materials could be a promising issue. This
section summarizes the main composite modification techniques
toward terminal blend crumb rubber (CR) binder and their prons
and cons.
3.4.1. CR + polymer/acid
Polymers are the widely used choices in the modification to
base binders and typically used polymeric asphalt modifiers could
be divided into two categories: elastomers and plastomers. SBS is
the most frequently adopted elastomeric polymer modifier world-
wide due to its contribution to both the high temperature stiffness
and low temperature flexibility of the base binder. Similar to mod-
ification of plain asphalt, this polymer has also been preferred in
improving the property of TB binder.
Indeed, the CALTRANS specification encourages the addition of
polymer or other additives to improve the deformation resistance
and compatibility of the wet process TB binder. As a result, TB bin-
ders in many projects were often added with small amounts of SBS
which implies that most TB binders were CR and SBS composite
modified asphalts in essence. For example, five chip seal test sec-
tions placed in southern California in 2008 adopted three terminal
blend tyre rubber modified binders in which roughly 2–3% SBS by
weight of virgin binder were adopted [13]. Attia also produced
high-performance terminal blend CRM binders suitable for Super-
pave mixtures in which 2% SBS was added to enhance the binder
performance properties [44].
In addition to SBS, other polymers or acid were also applied in
the composite modification of wet process TB binder, such as poly-
406 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409
ethylene, propylene-maleic anhydride, Elvaloy and PPA [50–55].
Xu finished an investigation in 2016 and found that a PG 76-
16/22 binder could be achieved by adding various polymers or
PPA in terminal blend rubber modified asphalt with simply 7 wt%
ground tyre rubber, indicating the performance of TB was signifi-
cantly improved by these polymeric or acid additives [50].
The incorporation of polymers such as SBS in TB would
undoubtedly strengthen its high temperature performance with-
out injuring (or even enhancing) the low temperature ductility.
But a new problem emerges with respect to polymeric modifica-
tion to TB binder. That is the detection and verification of the true
rubber content used in TB binder. Currently, TB binders are mainly
supplied by several big refinery companies in the US such as the
Paramount Petroleum Corporation, Wright Asphalt Products, US
Oil and the Alon Refinery etc. Most TB products provided by these
enterprises are finished products using proprietary processes in
which the recipe of the binders are not open. Therefore it is unable
for the contractors to know the authentic rubber content used
since up to date there has been no perfect testing method to check
the rubber content in TB. What’s important, one of the property
indexes in the PG TR system (the minimum solubility 97.5% of rub-
ber in the final blend) is quite difficult for TBs containing 10% plus
rubber to satisfy. Therefore, although most TB products with poly-
mers were claimed to have enough rubber content, some research-
ers suspected that the suppliers were very likely to use either little
crumb rubber or add more polymer to pass the solubility test yet
meet the performance requirement [29].
3.4.2. CR + nano material
With the rapid development of nano scale materials and tech-
nologies, nano modification to wet process terminal blends has
also gained increasing interests from researchers due to the fact
that most nano materials are able to increase the high temperature
stiffness of virgin binder [56–59]. It is anticipated that adding nano
materials into terminal blend binder might play a role in compen-
sating for the lost rubber elasticity and reduced binder viscosity
resulted from high temperature shearing.
However, related researches are not numerous in the literature,
only a few researches reported the effect of incorporating inorganic
nano materials in the TB binder. For example, Liu prepared 80
mesh crumb rubber and Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) nano
material modified asphalt and characterized its physical and age-
ing properties in 2015 [60]. The LDH he used is a kind of super-
molecular layered nanometer material. His work revealed that
addition of LDH into the rubber modified binder improved the high
temperature binder performance. Moreover, the anti-UV ageing
property of the composite modified binder was also enhanced
compared to TB due to the physical isolation and chemical absorp-
tion to UV light of nano LDH. In 2013, Xiao used nano Montmoril-
lonite (MMT) in the modification to TB binder and tested the high
and low temperature performance, thermal oxidative ageing prop-
erty as well as the storage stability of the final binder [61]. It was
found that nano montmorillonite could enhance the softening
point significantly and reduce the penetration number and low
temperature ductility, indicating that nano montmorillonite
improved the high temperature performance of TB binder but
impaired the low temperature flexibility. Furthermore, his X-Ray
Powder Diffraction (XRD) results showed that there was no peak
in the diffraction pattern of CR/MMT jointly modified binder,
showing that the silicate layers in the binder was thoroughly exfo-
liated under high speed shearing and an exfoliation micro-
structure was formed. Additionally, his work witnessed the
improvement in the thermal oxidative ageing property and storage
stability of the modified binder.
On the whole, nano modification to traditional terminal blend
rubberized binder could be a promising issue which opened a
new field in developing the TB technology. Existing research shows
that nano modification was effective in increasing the high tem-
perature performance of TB binder but nano materials was shown,
in these researches, to decrease the low temperature ductility of TB
binder. Therefore, more work on CR/nano modified binders is
needed in terms of seeking a balance between the high and low
temperature binder performance, choosing more effective nano
material and probing the possible reaction or interaction among
nano material, recycled rubber and base binder in the three-
component system.
3.4.3. CR + rock asphalt
Apart from conventional polymer and nano scale inorganic
modifiers, rock asphalt was also reported in the composite modifi-
cation to TB. Rock asphalt is a kind of natural asphalt obtained from
raw rocks which can be used as bitumen modifier to increase the
high temperature stability and durability of asphalt mixtures. In
addition, rock asphalt is compatible with commonly used petro-
leum asphalt since it has similar chemical composition to petro-
leum asphalt. However, rock asphalt has one limitation that it is
too stiff to ensure a mixture with good low temperature
performance.
In view of the specific properties of rock asphalt, Huang pro-
posed an assumption that the combination of rock asphalt and
TB binder would produce a composite modified binder with both
good anti-rutting performance and excellent low temperature
cracking resistance [62]. Each one in the combination would com-
pensate for the limitations of the other. In 2016, he prepared rock
asphalt and CRM modified binder and conducted a series of tests to
validate his hypothesis. Eventually, he proved that the incorpora-
tion of rock asphalt into TB asphalt could enhance the softening
point of the final binder and further increase the dynamic stability
of the mixture while keeping the low temperature binder grade
almost unchanged. However, through the comparison test with
SBS modified binder it was found that rock asphalt and CRM mod-
ified binder was inferior to 4.5% SBS binder in terms of Dynamic
Stability (DS), with its DS value simply half of the latter. Another
issue observed in his experiment also needs to be further studied,
that is the cohesion between modified binder and aggregates
seemed to be significantly decreased due to the over high asphalt
viscosity and insufficient coating of binder on aggregate surface.
This issue might reduce the moisture susceptibility of the mixture
containing tyre rubber and rock asphalt.
From the above summarization, it could be seen that composite
modification to virgin asphalt in the presence of recycled tyre rub-
ber has gained increasing interests nowadays. Modification to base
binder using recycled rubber along with other modifiers such as
polymer, acid, nano scale material and rock asphalt etc. could tap
the advantage of each modifier to full and achieve a satisfactory
modification effect economically and technically. However, current
researches on crumb rubber plus other additives modified binders
are not enough, with most investigations focusing on the physical
and mechanical performances of the modified binder. Little work
was reported considering the micro morphology and possible
interactions among crumb rubber, second modifier and base bin-
der. Meanwhile, although improvement in the high temperature
performance and thermal compatibility was observed in the labo-
ratory after adding the second modifier other than crumb rubber,
the potential mechanism behind this phenomenon has not been
known yet. Additionally, in the presence of two modifiers, which
of them plays a more important role has also never been investi-
gated up to date. Therefore, it still takes a long way to go for wet
process terminal blend binder before its extensive application.
In general, the major issues with wet process terminal blends
and the corresponding solutions according to the literature are
 L. Han et al. / Construction and Building Materials 128 (2016) 399–409 407

Table 3 (c) Traditional measures to improve the high temperature per-

Major issues and the corresponding solutions of TB binder. formance of TB include: increasing crumb rubber content,
Issues Countermeasures/Effects References using high natural rubber and feeding chemical reagent.
Unsatisfactory high (a) Increasing crumb rubber [34] However, too much crumb rubber might increase the poten-
temperature content; tial risk of phase separation and weaken the advantages of
binder (b) Using high natural rubber; [9,10] TB. While chemical reagent added in TB usually showed lim-
performance (c) Feeding with chemical reagent [2,35–37] ited contribution to the high temperature binder perfor-
(acrylic acid, poly phosphoric acid,
Vestenamer, sodium hypochlorite
mance. As for the second measure, a much rigorous
and hydrogen peroxide); chemical composition demand was proposed for recycled
(d) Composite modification with [13,29,44,50–62] rubber in TB which would narrow down the available rubber
polymers, acids, nano materials sources.
and rock asphalt.
(d) The thermal storage stability of TB could be improved by
Possible phase (a) Adding chemicals that [7,38] adding chemicals such as furfural extract oil, poly phospho-
segregation, generated free radicals;
ric acid, hydrosilylation catalysts, TOR and fluid catalytic
especially with (b) Adding Furfural extract oil; [39]
CR content > 15% c) Using conjugated diene [35,36,40–43] cracking slurry etc. Besides, lowering storage temperature
polymer, poly phosphoric acid, was also suggested to be an economical and simple way
hydrosilylation catalysts, fluid which could achieve same effect.
catalytic cracking slurry and (e) Only few limited investigations reported the application of
sulfur-based cross linking agents;
warm additives in TB mixtures. Typically used additives
(d) Lowering storage temperature; [44]
(e) hot water activation of crumb [45] include Sasobit, Evotherm and Leadcap. It was found adding
rubber. wax or chemical additives could increase the TB mixture rut-
Effect of WMA (a) Sasobit and Leadcap increased [48] ting resistance. The Leadcap could also lower the BBR stiff-
additives on TB mixture rutting resistance; ness of TB binder.
(b) Leadcap lowered BBR stiffness [48] (f) The incorporation of polymers in TB would undoubtedly
of TB;
strengthen its high temperature performance and compati-
(c) Comparable moisture stability [49]
to polymer modified asphalt mix. bility without injuring the low temperature ductility. How-
ever, researchers suspected that the suppliers were very
likely to use either less crumb rubber than claimed or more
polymer to pass the solubility test yet meet the performance
requirement.
summarized as shown in Table 3. Moreover, the effect of warm mix (g) Nano modification was effective in increasing the high tem-
additives on TB asphalts is also presented in this table. perature performance of TB but could decrease its low tem-
perature ductility. Therefore, more work on CR/nano
4. Conclusions modified binders are needed in terms of seeking a balance
between the high and low temperature performance, choos-
This work provided an overview on the wet process terminal ing more effective nano materials and investigating the pos-
blend rubberized binder. Most importantly, the latest progresses sible reaction or interaction among nano material, recycled
in TB technology were introduced based on up-to-date researches rubber and base binder in the three-component system.
and the corresponding limitations and concerns were discussed. As (h) Adding rock asphalt into TB rubberized binder could
a result, some main conclusions can be drawn as follows: enhance the softening point of the final binder while keeping
the low temperature grade almost unchanged, and could
(a) Wet process terminal blend binder is different from tradi- further increase the mixture dynamic stability. However,
tional asphalt rubber, which uses much finer rubber and rock asphalt and CR modified binder showed poor cohesion
high curing process to attain a high degree rubber depoly- between modified binder and aggregate which might reduce
merization and to obtain a homogeneous and storage stable the mixture moisture susceptibility.
binder. Especially, it holds a much lower viscosity of no more
than 1500 cP at 177 °C which makes it particularly applica-
ble to dense grade asphalt mixture. This index is also the
boundary to distinguish it from asphalt rubber. Terminal Acknowledgements
blend binder is a promising and environment-friendly bitu-
minous material which resembles polymer modified binder The authors appreciate the support from the Fundamental
in manufacturing system, performance properties as well Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (No.
as mixture handling. Now the TB binder can be performance 310821163502) , the 2016 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation pro-
graded and its application covers hot mix asphalt overlay ject of Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in
and surface treatment such as chip seal. China (No. 310821165008), the Transportation Department of
(b) Terminal blend binder yet faces several performance or Shandong Province (No. 2008Y007), the Transportation Depart-
environment related issues which prevent it from wide ment of Hebei Province (No. T-2012107, Y-2012014), the Trans-
application. First, its high temperature performance might portation Department of Hainan Province (No. 201000005) and
be discounted by high curing condition since rubber the Shaanxi Provincial Transport Department of China (No. 10-
elasticity in TB was damaged by the depolymerization effect. 29K).
Second, this binder still presents phase segregation
problems at high temperature due to property differences
among two constituents in the blend. Finally, terminal blend References
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