摘要: |
Increasing recycled materials content in asphalt mixtures provides economic and environmental benefits, but each unique materials combination of virgin and recycled materials and additives must be engineered to ensure adequate performance with proper selection of component materials, balanced proportioning, and consideration of recycled binder availability. The design of mixtures with recycled materials often assumes that 100 percent of the recycled binder is available to blend with the virgin binder, and the virgin binder content is reduced accordingly. In reality, when recycled binder availability is less than 100 percent for heavily aged materials, total binder contents are less than optimum from mix design, resulting in dry mixtures with insufficient coating and inadequate durability and cracking performance. In addition, recycled binder availability can be used to assess aging state and preclude the use of large quantities of these materials with stiff, brittle binders that contribute negatively to performance even if available. The Performing Agency will address these concerns and revise TxDOT’s Standard and/or Special Specifications to incorporate recycled binder availability as part of mix design and revise the allowable maximum recycled binder ratio (RBR) limits as appropriate in a synthesis project based only on literature and available data. |