Towards sustainable roads

through high RAP content layers

1 2 3
Antonio Roberto , Francesco Preti and Beatriz Chagas Silva Gouveia
1 2 3
antonio.roberto@studenti.unipr.it, francesco.preti@studenti.unipr.it, beatriz.chagassilvagouveia@studenti.unipr.it
Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA), University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy

Introduction
Nowadays, it is widely recognised that environmental and climatic changes are affecting all of us. CO2 emissions and the necessity of extracting virgin materials li-
Abstract
mit the possibilities of developing an efficient road transportation system. In the last few decades, the pavement scientific community has started to study how to
build and maintain roads through sustainable practices. Road pavements are usually divided into 2 macro-families: rigid and flexible pavements, both of those are built by overlapping
different layers, each one characterised by a different mechanical behaviour and a different role in the structure. In our research group the attention is focused on flexible pavements.
During maintenance activities, scarification and milling processes produce a lot of “waste” material, named reclaimed asphalt pavements (RAP). This old material can be resourceful as
it can be utilized to build new sustainable pavement-layers.
This important goal is achievable by performing two kinds of recycling activities: hot and cold. There are a lot of differences between the two techniques but the important common point
is the high RAP reusing. These recycling activities allow to decrease the CO2 emissions, as the numbers of transportation from the site to the plants is reduced since most of the times
the recycling activities are performed on site. At the same time, raw-materials usage is reduced as well. Our goal is to design pavements containing high RAP content as well as to gua-
rantee comparable performance to the virgin-material based ones. If this kind of techniques become a common practice around the world, it would be possible to save a lot of energy
and radically reduce CO2 emissions, both for new pavement constructions and for maintenance and rehabilitation works.

Current works

1 Laboratory experimental investigations

Cold Recycling Base layer RAP% up to 100% Hot Recycling Binder layer RAP% up to 20
Sample manufacturing procedure

Polymer Compound
Triaxial Samples IDT Sample and test configuration

SUPERPAVE Test configuration

2 Modeling by using Finite Element Method (FEM)

Specimen model Pavement model

3D Elasto-plastic Model Laboratory sample and loading apparatus

Pavement FEM 2D-model 12

Preliminary results

1 Laboratory investigations 2 Modeling investigations

Hot recycling Mixture Label Binder Filler Aggregates

Samples
N Neat Limestone Virgin
NR Neat Limestone Virgin + RAP BSM overlapped laboratory and FEM 3D-Model curves
H SBS Modified Limestone Virgin
HR SBS Modified Limestone Virgin + RAP

Mechanical characterization Cracking behaviour analysis

4.0
5.0 Modified Asphalt Binder Neat Asphalt Binder Modified Asphalt Binder Neat Asphalt Binder
4.5 3.5
Fracture Energy [kJ/m3]

4.0
3.0
Tensile Strength [MPa]

3.5
2.5
3.0

2.5 2.0

2.0 1.5

1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5

0.0 0.0
H HR
without P with P
N NR H
without P
HR
with P
N NR
Pavement
Cold recycling
Rutting prediction 2D-Model
Temperature analysis Mechanical characterization
ΔT max per % active filler ITS (kPa) / ITR (%)
25
22.8 300 100%
Innovative filler 270 90%
20 18.6 250 80%
238 235 237
200 208 70%
15 14.1 60%
164
ΔT (°C)

150 50%
11.4
40%
10 100 30%
6.1
50 20%
5 63% 57% 71% 56% 80% 55% 10%

0
1.1
0.5
0
1% 2% 3% 4% 5% Cement 1%
0%
ESALs to reach 20mm rut-depth
1% 2% 3% 4% 5% Ca(OH)2 4% cemento 2% ITR ITS DRY Standard limit

300
Coesion (kPa) Fiction Angle (°)
49.2 48.2
254.0 50
250 237.4 235.5 239.1 42.5
227.4 38.9 40.1
40 35.0
200 172.3
30
PHI ( )
COESIONE

150
20
100
10
50
0

0 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% Cement 1%
1% 2% 3% 4% 5% Cement 1%

Conclusion Reference
The current works have shown the following outcomes:  Roberto A., Montepara A., Romeo E., Tatalović S. (2020) The Use of a Polyethylene-Based Modifier to Produce Modified Asphalt Binders on
Site. In: Pasetto M., Partl M., Tebaldi G. (eds) Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Asphalt Pavements & Environment (APE).
 Possibility to reduce CO2 emissions by using recycled materials; ISAP APE 2019. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 48. Springer, Cham
 Cost and energetic consumption reduction for transportation activities;  Roberto, A., Romeo, E., Montepara, A., & Roncella, R. (2018). Effect of fillers and their fractional voids on fundamental fracture properties
of asphalt mixtures and mastics. Road Materials and Pavement Design, 1-17.
 Neat materials can improve in performance by using PmA technique;
 Preti, F., Gouveia, B. C. S., Rahmanbeiki, A., Romeo, E., Carter, A., & Tebaldi, G. (2019). Application and validation of the cohesion test to
 Innovative filler for cold recycling layers can extend maintanance season by adding characterise reclaimed asphalt pavement. Road Materials and Pavement Design, 20(sup1), S434-S445.
heat in the mixing process;
 Preti, F., Noto, S., Gouveia, B. C. S., & Tebaldi, G. (2019, September). Evaluation of Reliability of RILEM Fragmentation Test. In International
 Prediction of materials’ mechanical behaviour to plan future maintenance. Symposium on Asphalt Pavement & Environment (pp. 256-263). Springer, Cham.

Dipartimento di Ingegneria
e Architettura