Construction and Building Materials 99 (2015) 137–142

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Research on development mechanism of early-stage strength for cold

recycled asphalt mixture using emulsion asphalt
Juntao Lin a,b,⇑, Tanzhong Wei a, Jinxiang Hong a, Yongli Zhao b, Jiaping Liu a,c
a
State Key Laboratory of High Performance Civil Engineering Materials, Jiangsu Research Institute of Building Science, Nanjing 210008, China
b
School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
c
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

 Cement hydration plays the

predominant role in strength of CRME
in 0–5 days.
 The failure fracture of CRME in early-
stage is mainly adhesion failure in
interface.
 The failure fracture of CRME after
curing is mostly due to cohesive
fracture.

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

Article history: This paper aims at investigating the development mechanism of early-stage strength for cold recycled
Received 8 June 2015 asphalt mixture using emulsion asphalt. The influence parameters of early-stage strength development
Received in revised form 15 September for cold recycled mixture by emulsion and cement (CRME) is firstly studied, and then the direct tensile
2015
test is used to determine the early-stage strength development law of emulsion asphalt–cement mortar.
Accepted 18 September 2015
Available online 25 September 2015
Lastly, the image analysis is used to identify the fracture morphology of cross-section of cold recycled
mixture, and the development mechanism of cold recycled mixture is revealed. The results indicate that
the cement plays the predominant role in strength of CRME in first 3 days, while emulsion asphalt plays
Keywords:
Cold recycled asphalt mixture
the predominant role in both early-stage and final strength. Moreover, the adhesion between mortar and
Emulsion asphalt aggregate provide the strength for CRME in earth-stage, while the cohesion in emulsion–cement mortar
Early-stage provides the strength for CRME after curing. The findings in the paper provide new approaches to
Strength improve the early-stage strength of CRME.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction asphalt mixtures are produced annually in China. Nowadays, recy-

Asphalt pavement tends to deteriorate during its service life
due to traffic and environmental effect. After the reconstruction
and major maintenance of pavement, nearly 6000 million waste
⇑ Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of High Performance Civil
Engineering Materials, Jiangsu Research Institute of Building Science, Nanjing
210008, China.
E-mail address: linjt@seu.edu.cn (J. Lin).
cling of waste asphalt mixture attracts more attention in these
years due to the lacking of natural aggregate and budget [1–3].
Generally, recycling of waste asphalt mixture can divide into
cold recycled and hot recycled [4,5]. Cold recycled technology
can take up 70–90% of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), and it is
develop dramatically in China for pavement rehabilitation and
used as subgrade or in asphalt pavement structure. Cold recycled
of RAP also comprises two methods including emulsified asphalt

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.09.019
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
138 J. Lin et al. / Construction and Building Materials 99 (2015) 137–142
and foamed asphalt. Cold recycled of RAP by emulsion asphalt and
cement (CRME) is a promising method to be used in expressway
with high-vehicle and widely used in asphalt pavement rehabili-
tating [6,7]. Although cold recycled by emulsion asphalt and
cement has been successfully applied, there are still some critical
problems existing in this technology, which restricted its further
application. Among these problems, it needs 3–7 days for curing
in summer and much longer in winter due to the low early
strength of CRME, which prolongs the construction period and
increase the difficulty for traffic organization.
Many researchers focus on the strength of CRME in both labora-
tory and field pavement. Extensive research indicated that the
cement accelerate the breaking of bitumen emulsion and setting
of the mix, which increase the early strength of CRME [8,9]. Kim
confirmed that the amount of moisture and length of the curing
period significantly affect the properties of the CIR mixtures by
emulsion asphalt [10]. Bocci found that the curing process was
slower at low temperatures, while higher temperatures resulted
in higher rates of strength increase [11]. Brown found that cement
influenced the initial curing process of CRME and increased the
early strength of CRME [12]. In addition, Rita conducted a study
and conclude that the addition of cemented materials increase
the strength of CRME, while make CRME to be prone to shrinkage
cracking [13]. Harvey found that the interface between asphalt and
aggregate was important for cold recycled mixture by foamed
asphalt, and concluded that foamed asphalt mixtures were weakly
bonded granular materials [14,15]. Thomas also found that CRME
behaved similar to granular materials at early-stage and similar
to conventional asphalt mixture materials after curing [16].
Based on the literatures above, the strength development of
early-stage and its mechanism has not been comprehensively
studied. However, early-stage strength has become a critical prob-
lem for application of CRME both in China and other countries [17].
The limited knowledge on early-stage strength of CRME cannot
make recommendation for the curing process and improve the
early-stage strength of CRME, which provides the motivation to
undertake this research.
The objective of this paper is to investigate the devolvement
mechanism of early-stage strength for CRME, and to determine
the critical parameters influencing the early-stage strength of
CRME. The early-stage strengths of CRME at different curing condi-
tions are investigated, and then the role of emulsion and cement
content is studied. Lastly, the image process is conducted to inves-
tigate the fracture mechanism of CRME. The research will help to
know the devolvement mechanism of early-stage strength for
CRME and to improve the early-stage strength of CRME.
2. Materials and experiments
2.1. Materials
Cationic slow-setting emulsion asphalt (CSS) was prepared with base asphalt
binder and emulsifier in the laboratory. The base asphalt used in this study was
obtained from market. The basic properties of the emulsion asphalt are shown in
Table 1.
The recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) was obtained from one expressway in
Jiangxi Province, China, and the aggregates gradation of CRME is shown in Fig. 1.
CRME used in this paper with RAP of 89% was designed by modified Marshall Meth-
ods, Firstly, the optimum adding moisture content was determined as 2.3% by
weight of aggregates, and then the optimum emulsion asphalt content was deter-
mined as 3.8% by weight of aggregates through Marshall Test. It was noted that
the cement used in this study was designed as 2% for conventional CRME samples.
Normally, after CRME specimens were prepared, the specimens were placed in
oven at a temperature of 60 °C for 168 h to stimulation the long-term curing pro-
cess [18,19]. During the curing, CRME specimens were covered with a plastic film
except the tops to allow water to evaporate through the top surface only. In this
paper, CRME specimens were placed at the room with temperature of 20 °C and
humidity of 60% or 90% for 24 h, 48 h, 72 h and 120 h to simulate the early-stage
curing of CRME.
Table 1
Properties of emulsion asphalt.
Type CSS
Residue by distillation (%) 63
Emulsifier content (%) 3
Storage stability at 1 day (%) 0.2
Storage stability at 5 days (%) 1.1
Penetration of residue, 25 °C 69.5
Ductility of residue, 15 °C 66.5
Fig. 1. Grading curves of aggregates.
2.2. Experiments
2.2.1. Indirect tension strength test
The CRME samples of 150 mm in diameter and 100 mm in height were prepared
with SGC (Superpave Gyratory Compactor). The indirect tension strengths of spec-
imens with different curing conditions were tested at a temperature of 15 °C with a
loading rate of 50 mm/min.
2.2.2. Moisture content test
The moisture in CRME composed of the water added in mixing and the water in
emulsion asphalt and aggregate. The moisture content is defined as the moisture
weight in CRME divided by the weight of dry aggregate and asphalt in CRME. During
the test, the CRME samples were placed at room temperature of 20 °C and 30 °C
with the humidity of 60%, and the weight of samples is monitored for 1–7 days,
and the moisture content of CRME is calculated each day.
2.2.3. Direct tensile test
The direct tensile test was used to characterize the adhesion strength of emul-
sion–cement mortar. Firstly, cement and mineral filler were mixed with water
according to the designed value in cold recycled mixtures, and then mixed with
emulsion asphalt to form the emulsion–cement mortar in order to simulate the
mortar in CRME.
After the emulsion–cement mortar was prepared, it was placed on the surfaces
of two asphalt mixture slices (5 cm * 5 cm) and two aluminum plates (4 cm * 4 cm)
to simulate the adhesion of mortar with RAP. The image of samples can be seen in
Fig. 2. The samples with different curing time were tested at a constant displace-
ment rate (5 mm/min) until failure. The maximum failure stress and displacement
were obtained.
2.2.4. Image analysis
The image analysis was performed to get insight into the fracture mechanism of
CRME in early-stage. Firstly, the full fracture section images of CRME samples
(10 * 15 cm) at different curing time were obtained, and then Matlab13.0 with
self-defined program was employed to analysis the fracture surface images of
CRME. The fracture surface area between aggregate and emulsion mortar was cal-
culated based on image analysis. The specific procedure is firstly conducting the
planarization the 3D cross section, and then switching into grey-level after digitiza-
tion, finally calculating the FASA ratio after identifying the bonding failure in the
interface from the threshold of one color in the grey-level. Fig. 3 shows the image
analysis process of CRME, and the fracture aggregate ratio of surface area (FASA)
was identified and calculated as critical parameter to reflect the fracture mecha-
nism of CRME in early-stage.
 J. Lin et al. / Construction and Building Materials 99 (2015) 137–142
Fig. 2. The image of fracture samples.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Strength development of CRME
Normally, the indirect tension strength is the design parameter
for CRME in many countries, thus the indirect tension strength
(ITS) development process of CRME is important in early-stage.
The indirect tension strength of CRME at 20 °C with different cur-
ing time is shown in Fig. 4. As seen in Fig. 4, the indirect tension
strength is increased with the increases of curing time, and the
increase rate in 0–5 days is much faster than curing time after
5 days. Therefore, the strength in 0–5 days is critical curing time
for field application.
The influence of humility on strength development is shown in
Fig. 5. As seen in these figures, higher humility decrease the early-
stage strength development rate of CRME, and thus the CRME
needs longer curing time prior to traffic in higher humility and
low temperature condition.
The increasing strength of CRME in early-stage is attributed to
the hydration of cement and the demulsification of emulsion
asphalt [20]. In this paper, the role of cement and emulsion in
CRME is separately discussed. As seen in Figs. 6 and 7, the ITS of
CRME without cement or emulsion is obtained and compared to
the control CRME. It is concluded that the cement hydration plays
the predominant role in early-stage strength of CRME in 0–5 days,
while emulsion asphalt in terminal strength for CRME. In addition,
Fig. 3. Image analysis process for ITS samples.
139
the CRME with cement alone show the steady strength after
3 days’ curing, and the emulsion asphalt continuously increases
the strength of CRME in all stage. It is noted in Fig. 6 that the
sum strength of CRME without cement or without emulsion is
lower than that of control CRME, which indicate that the cement
can increase the demulsification of emulsion asphalt in CRME sys-
tem especially at the early stage. However, the sum strength of
CRME without cement and without emulsion is higher than that
of control CRME, which can be attribute to that the terminal
strength of CRME is dominated by emulsion asphalt. Thus, cement
is mainly works in early-stage strength of CRME for its hydration
and accelerates the demulsification of emulsion asphalt.
3.2. Moisture content of CRME
Moisture content is an important parameter to determine the
curing time for CRME pavement at the early-stage, and the mois-
ture content less than 2% is used as a critical indicator for CRME
to terminate the early-stage curing and open the pavement to traf-
fic in China. Therefore, the variation of the moisture content is dis-
cussed in this section. Fig. 8 gives the moisture content of CRME in
the curing process. The moisture content decreased dramatically
during first 3 days’ curing, and then shows a steady decrease with
curing time. It is noted that the moisture content is 2.6% after
3 days, and the moisture content of 2% cannot be obtained after
7 days’ curing. Therefore, the criteria of ending curing based on
moisture content needs to be further studied. In addition,
the moisture content is consistent with the ITS of CRME, the
lower moisture content means higher ITS in early-stage for CRME.
3.3. Direct tensile strength of emulsion–cement mortar
To further investigate the cooperative effect of cement and
emulsion asphalt, the strengths development of emulsion–cement
mortar is studied by direct tensile strength (DTS). The adhesion
strength of emulsion–cement mortar with asphalt and aluminum
plate is obtained respectively. The adhesion strength and displace-
ment curve and results is shown in Fig. 9 and Table 2. It is noted
that the adhesion strength at 15 °C of emulsion–cement mortar
is increasing with the increases of curing time. Based on the
strength and surface image, the fracture surface between emul-
sion–cement mortar and aluminum plate can be considered as
adhesion failure on the interface before 3 days’ curing, while the
fracture surface between emulsion–cement mortar and asphalt
mixture is cohesion of internal mortar after 3 days’ curing. After
the 3 days of curing, the fracture surface between emulsion–ce-
ment mortar and aluminum plate is transformed into cohesion of
internal mortar, and it is concluded that the cohesion strength of
140 J. Lin et al. / Construction and Building Materials 99 (2015) 137–142

Fig. 7. The sum strength of CRME without cement and without emulsion.
Fig. 4. Indirect tension strength of CRME at different curing time.

Table 2
Direct tension strength of emulsion–cement mortar.

Direct tension strength 12 h 1 day 3 days 7 days

(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
Mortar and asphalt 0.52 0.90 1.86 1.97
plate
Mortar and aluminum 0.16 0.25 0.90 1.45
plate

Fig. 5. Influence of humility on ITS of CRME.

Fig. 8. The moisture content of CRME in the curing process.

Fig. 6. ITS of CRME with different compositions.

internal mortar is higher than adhesion strength in interface. In

addition, the direct tensile strength development of emulsion–
cement mortar is correlated with ITS of CRME. The direct tensile
test of emulsion asphalt is used to simulate the fracture of CRME
in early-stage, and it is interesting to found that the interface frac-
ture morphology is significant correlated with its strength, and
thus the interface fracture morphology of CRME in ITS test is used
to investigate the fracture mechanism of CRME in next section.
Fig. 9. The displacement curve of CRME in DTS test.

3.4. Development mechanism of early-stage strength

From the test results of ITS of CRME and DTS of mortar, it is
found that the fracture interface of CRME exhibited obvious fea-
tures, especially at the early-stage. This phenomenon is mostly
due to bonding failure in the interface between emulsified asphalt
and aggregates at the early-stage, while in the late period of curing
it is attributed to the cohesive failure within the emulsified asphalt
mortar. Fig. 10 depict the cross section of cold recycling mixture
with various curing time, from which it can be seen clearly that
the fracture strength of cold recycling mixture is related to
cross-section morphology to some extent, which is in agreement
with the interface failure morphology in DTS test. To further inves-
tigate into this phenomenon, the image processing method is
utilized to precisely characterize the fracture condition of CRME
by identifying the fracture aggregate ratio of surface area (FASA),
and then the strength of cold recycling mixture can be correlated
afterwards. Image processing is based on Matlab 13.0 software
with the specific procedure as depicted in Section 2.2.4.
As seen in Fig. 11, it is easily seen that there is a linear relation-
ship between ITS strength and FASA of CRME. The FASA value
 J. Lin et al. / Construction and Building Materials 99 (2015) 137–142
Fig. 10. The cross section of cold recycling mixture with various curing time.
Fig. 11. The relationship of ITS strength and FASA for CRME.
Fig. 12. The color distribution of emulsified asphalt mortar.
decreases when the strength of cold recycling mixture increasing,
which is consistent well with the direct tension test results. The
strength of CRME can be effectively identified by FASA, which
Fig. 13. The strength development mechanism of CRME.
141
demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between the
strength of CRME and emulsified asphalt mortar interface. How-
ever, it is seen in Fig. 12 that the color distribution of emulsified
asphalt mortar presents little relationship to its strength, thus it
is hard to characterize the strength using this index.
The fracture mechanism of cold recycling mixture under indi-
rect tensile mode can be further verified using FASA calculation
and analysis. Base on the result in the image analysis, the strength
development mechanism of CRME is revealed and depicted in
Fig. 13. It is seen that there is a large amount of water membrane
in the interface between emulsified asphalt and aggregates at the
early-stage, and thus the interface is the weak point when fracture
take place. Therefore, the failure fracture of CRME in early-stage is
mainly adhesion failure in interface between emulsion asphalt
mortar and aggregate. As the curing time increases, the continuous
asphalt membrane is formed in the interface between aggregates
with cement hydration and emulsion asphalt demulsification,
which causes the bonding strength exceeding the cohesive
strengths of emulsion asphalt mortar. Therefore, the failure frac-
ture is mostly due to cohesive fracture within emulsion asphalt
mortar, which explains that the strength of CRME is significant
increased after curing. The mechanism of strength development
for CRME provides methods to improve its early-stage strength.
On one hand, decreasing the thickness of water membrane
between aggregate and emulsion asphalt mortar is a promised
method to improve the interface adhesion strength. On the other
hand, accelerating the hydration of cement in first 3 days may also
help to improve the early-stage strength of CRME.
4. Conclusions
The strength development principle of cold recycled mixture
with emulsion (CRME) is studied, and the development and frac-
ture mechanism of CRME is discussed by image analysis methods
142 J. Lin et al. / Construction and Building Materials 99 (2015) 137–142
at both early-stage and after cuing. Based on the results mentioned
above, conclusions can be drawn as follows:
(1) Higher humility and low temperature decrease the early-
stage strength development rate of CRME.
(2) Cement hydration plays the predominant role in early-stage
strength of CRME in 0–5 days, while emulsion asphalt plays
the predominant role in terminal strength for CRME.
(3) The ITS of CRME is related well to the moisture content. The
lower moisture content means higher ITS at the early-stage
for CRME.
(4) At the early-stage, the cement hydration and inner frictional
resistance provide the strength for CRME, and the water
existing in the interface between emulsion asphalt and
aggregate leads to a low strength of CRME at the early-
stage, while the continuous asphalt membrane formed in
the interface after curing provides a higher strength for
CRME after curing.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by China Postdoctoral Science Founda-
tion (2014M561601) and Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral
Research Funds as well as Natural Science Foundation for Youths of
Jiangsu Province (BK20151013).
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