Date of Award

Spring 2013

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Civil Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Jo Sias Daniel

Abstract

The practice of incorporating Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) into Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is common within the paving industry as a cost effective source of quality paving binder and aggregate. As prices for these resources continue to rise, investigations are being made to further increase the amount of RAP in new paving projects. These mixtures incorporate already aged asphalt binder into new mixtures, which can impact the performance of the mixture in the field in terms of cracking, rutting and aging. The goal of this research project was to determine if a difference in aging between high and low RAP mixtures existed and the extent to which it effected the mixture performance. This study compared binder and mixture data from a paving project from 1987 lead by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT), which includes several stretches of 35% RAP mixtures along New Hampshire's 1-89 and I93. Field cores were obtained from the travel and shoulder lanes of the pavement sections; asphalt binder was extracted and recovered from different depths in the pavement structure and cores were prepared for mixture testing in indirect tension mode. Mixture testing was inconclusive due to varying air void content and lack of low RAP specimens for comparison. Binder testing indicated high RAP mixtures age more uniformly through depth and between travel and shoulder lanes compared to low RAP mixtures.

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