Rheological evaluation of asphalt blends at multiple rejuvenation and aging cycles

The use of recycling agents has become a common practice to produce asphalt mixtures with high contents of reclaimed asphalt materials. Previous studies have shown that characterisation of rejuvenated asphalt blends using empirical tests, used for evaluation of ordinary bituminous binders in accordance with EN 12591, might not be sufficient. It was also proven that if the aged binder is restored in one parameter such as penetration or softening point, it does not necessarily mean that the other rheological properties are restored in the same way. For this reason, this paper characterises the behaviour of rejuvenated asphalt blends using two rheological parameters: the Glower-Rowe (G-R) parameter and the difference between the low-temperature continuous performance grades determined from the bending beam rheometer (BBR) stiffness and m-value criteria (ΔTc). Recycling agents were added to an artificially aged asphalt binder. The first rejuvenation cycle of rejuvenation refers to 4 aging stages: no aging, ro...