Laboratory versus plant production: impact of material properties and performance for RAP and RAS mixtures

AbstractAgencies are moving towards performance-based design methodologies for asphalt pavements, and different methods to evaluate the asphalt performance in the laboratory have been developed. The laboratory performance can be evaluated at the mix design and/or production stages. A good understanding of differences in the behaviour of mixtures produced in the laboratory and plant is required to assess anticipated field performance at the mix design stage. The objectives of this paper are to compare the measured properties of plant-produced and laboratory-produced mixtures, to evaluate the effect of mixture variables on the differences observed, and to translate these to anticipated differences in fatigue performance through pavement evaluation using a linear viscoelastic layered analysis. In this study, 11 plant mixed, plant compacted, and their corresponding laboratory-mixed, laboratory-compacted mixtures are evaluated through binder and mixture testing. Mixture variables include aggregate gradation, b...