ROLE OF REJUVENATORS AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE PERFORMANCROLE OF REJUVENATORS AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE PERFORMANCE AND AGING CHARACTERISTICS OF BITUMENE AND AGING CHARACTERISTICS OF BITUMEN

Abstract

The field of pavement engineering is at the verge of resource depletion and the need of construction materials are increasing in exponential manner, it is required to check the suitability of different alternative to replace the need of virgin materials. Suitability refers to the structural and functional performance of the pavement towards loading and other external factors like solar radiation, environmental and climatic factors. In order to reduce the usage of non-renewable virgin raw materials for the construction of flexible pavement, milled material called Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) can be used. Therefore, the work analyses the effect of rejuvenators in restoring the binder properties in a hot mix for pavement construction with RAP. Various tests based on physical, chemical and rheological properties were done to ascertain the suitability of binder. Rate of deterioration of binder properties due to various aging conditions like short term (Rolling Thin Film Oven -RTFO test) and long term (recovered RAP binder) aging are considered. Hence, rejuvenators which can be considered as modifiers of aged binder can be blended with RAP during hot mixing to restore the binder properties. Rejuvenators such as waste engine oil (WEO) and waste cooking oil (WCO) are adopted in the study to check the structural and functional contribution of reusing binder. Chemical analysis includes Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to find the aging indices and rheological analysis includes dynamic Shear Rheometer to compare the complex shear modulus (G*) and phase angle (δ) for predicting fatigue and rutting behavior. Based on the test results WCO is found effective in restoring physical properties, in rheological properties RAP binder modified with rejuvenators are found comparable to VG 30.