Recycled Materials and Warm Mix Asphalt Technology: A Green Approach in Pavement Modification

Increasing amount of waste and depletion of natural resources has encouraged recycling of materials in road construction. In this study, two types of recycled materials incorporated in road pavement construction, namely reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and crumb rubber warm mix asphalt (CRWMA) were investigated. Both materials were incorporated with asphalt materials at various contents. The evaluation assesses the effects of compaction temperature during mix design, resilient modulus and the effects of moisture to pavement with recycled materials. Based on the analysis of compaction temperature effects, it shows that the warm mix additive can reduce the compaction temperature of the recycled asphalt mixture which is found to be environmentally beneficial. In terms of resilient modulus, the addition of recycled materials increases the resilient modulus. It was found that recycled material contents are the crumb rubber and RAP has significant effects on the resilient modulus. The incorporation of crumb rubber slightly reduced the moisture resistance. It is proposed to treat the crumb prior incorporation into asphalt mixture. The addition of WMA into RAP showed improvement in fatigue resistance. From the study, the recycled materials showed some environmental benefits and improved the resilient modulus. Hence, it has the potential to be used as green construction with some treatment.