The use of high content of fine crumb rubber in asphalt mixes using dry process

摘要

The two traditional methods to incorporate crumb rubber into asphalt mixes are the dry process and wet process. Although dry process has greater advantages including more crumb rubber usage, conservation of natural resources, and so on, there is less desire to apply dry process compared to wet process because of its poor performance. This study aims to evaluate the usage of high contents of crumb rubber powder (CRP) as filler in asphalt mixes and provide further development in the dry process method by considering the curing process effect, different CRP contents and micro-scale size of CRP filler. The conventional filler of mixes was replaced with 20, 40 and 60% CRP by weight of filler and the mechanical properties of modified mixes, including moisture susceptibility, stiffness modulus, rutting performance and fatigue life were evaluated. The results indicated that simultaneously applying curing process and very fine CRP in the asphalt mix, enhanced considerably the resistance of asphalt mixes against failures. In addition, the performance of mixes with high contents of CRP was weakened, which could be improved by curing process. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.