Field Evaluation Of Use Of Waste Shingles In Asphalt Mixtures PDF Download

This thesis documents the evaluation of the initial performance of pavement containing recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) in Oregon. The research was funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Federal Highway Administration and was conducted at Oregon State University. The key objectives of this thesis are to document the state-of-the-practice for implementation of recycled asphalt shingles in hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures, and to evaluate the initial field and laboratory performance of mixtures containing RAS. Recent oil price increases, coupled with environmental impacts has encouraged industry to use materials containing asphalt binder, such as asphalt shingles as a partial replacement of virgin materials in the construction of bituminous pavement. Residential home reroofing projects generate RAS as does the asphalt shingle manufacturing industry as a waste product at a rate of approximately 11 million tons per year nationwide. Disposal of these materials ordinarily involves discarding the materials in landfills. However, since these shingles contain asphalt binder, many states and asphalt pavement contractors have made efforts to incorporate these materials into asphalt pavements. Asphalt shingles are produced with asphalt binders that have substantially higher stiffness than paving grade asphalt binders. With increased stiffness comes increased brittleness. Consequently, incorporating RAS into hot mix asphalt may expose the pavement to an increased likelihood of low temperature cracking and fatigue cracking unless modifications are made to the mixtures to compensate for increased stiffness due to the RAS binder. House Bill 2733, proposed before the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 2009, would have required ODOT to use up to 5% RAS in HMA. However, inclusion of RAS in HMA raised concerns within the agency with regard to the potential for reduction in pavement performance ultimately leading to increased costs due to early failures. Consequently, considering these concerns the legislation on this bill was postponed pending completion of research to investigate the performance of pavement containing RAS in Oregon pavements. As a result, ODOT sponsored preliminary research on use of RAS in HMA in 2009 and subsequently through the research project described herein. The research work described herein was separated into three distinct but interconnected tasks. The first involved conducting a detailed literature review to gain an understanding of the state-of-the-practice for successful implementation of RAS in pavements. Emphasis during this effort was placed on selection of the virgin binder grade to offset the effects of increased stiffness due to incorporation of RAS binder, batching and mixing procedures for inclusion of RAS in HMA mixtures, ignition oven calibration factors for mixtures containing RAS, and quality control/quality assurance procedures for pavements built with RAS mixtures. There exists a substantial body of literature covering use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) as a partial replacement of virgin materials in HMA pavements. Due to many similarities of RAP and RAS, many of the documents reviewed covered only RAP, but with the aim of extending the technologies used for RAP mixtures to those containing RAS or RAS and RAP. The second task involved conducting laboratory investigations to verify the practicality and effectiveness of procedures found in the literature for batching and mixing materials containing RAS and/or RAP and RAS. Finally, the third task involved investigations of performance of two pavements containing RAP and RAS constructed as pilot projects. The investigations involved an assessment of field performance and laboratory tests on samples obtained from the two pavements. For comparison purposes, the same investigations were performed on pavements and samples from pavements that contained RAP but no RAS. These were constructed adjacent to, and at the same time as, the pavements with RAP and RAS. Based on the findings from the literature review, this thesis contains recommendations for: 1) selection of a virgin binder grade when RAP and/or RAS is used in an HMA mixture; 2) a procedure for effectively and efficiently extracting and recovering asphalt binder from RAS; 3) batching and mixing procedures for manufacturing laboratory test specimens containing RAS; 4) a method for determining ignition over calibration factors for mixtures containing RAS; and 5) quality control/quality assurance procedures for pavements built with RAS mixtures. The recommended batching and mixing procedure was verified through laboratory investigations while ongoing research is in the process of verifying the remaining procedures. Laboratory investigations involving dynamic modulus testing and comparative analyses of RAP-only mixtures (control mixtures) versus RAP and RAS mixtures indicated a trend of reduced dynamic modulus due to the addition of RAS in the mixture on both pilot projects. However, when the mixtures were compared at a 95 percent confidence level, a significant difference was found for only one of the two projects. This reduction in dynamic modulus was likely due to the softening of blended binder and the increased air voids in the mixtures containing RAS. In addition, fatigue testing and comparative analyses using phenomenological and dissipated energy approaches indicated that there was no significant difference in fatigue resistance of the RAP-only mixture versus the RAP and RAS mixture at a 95 percent confidence level. Assessment of field performance through visual inspections of the pavements built with mixtures containing RAS revealed no low temperature cracking following the first winter season in service. Nor did the inspections reveal any fatigue cracking. Although these inspections occurred within 8 months of construction of the pavements, the findings provide encouraging early-life performance of the mixtures.