Experimental Evaluation of the Fatigue Performance and Self-Healing Behavior of Nanomodified Porous Asphalt Mixtures Containing RAP Materials under the Aging Condition and Freeze–Thaw Cycle

Abstract

First, porous asphalt (PA) pavement possesses a lower strength and lifetime compared to typical dense-grade asphalt mixtures due to its large empty space structure. Second, PA pavements’ fatigue life and durability are affected significantly by climate factors; the two most critical factors being aging conditions and moisture actions. Third, because of the environmental concerns connected with producing or repairing asphalt pavements using only virgin materials, studies have recommended reusing reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials. On the other hand, their use in road pavement is negative to the fatigue performance of asphalt pavements, especially PA. Therefore, modifying PA mixtures containing RAP to address the mentioned issues is necessary. Researchers have found that modifying asphalt mixes using nanotechnology is one of the more effective methods. The four-point bending beam fatigue test is one of the most dependable tests to assess the fatigue performance of asphalt mixtures, and evaluating the fatigue resistance of nano-modified PA mixes containing RAP under laboratory conditions by performing this test is essential. This study aims to investigate the fatigue behavior of different compounds of PA mixtures modified with nano zinc oxide (NZ) (0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, and 8%) containing various contents of RAP materials (0%, 25%, and 50%) under normal, long-term aging, and freeze–thaw (F–T) cycle conditions. Moreover, the self-healing capability of these PA samples was evaluated using this test by performing two 24-h recovery periods following the first and second loading. It can be inferred from the result that although adding RAP and inducting long-term aging and moisture-damaged conditions negatively influenced PA mixes’ fatigue lives, incorporating NZ caused increases in these values by averages of 114%. Besides, results indicated that applied rest periods were observed to significantly impact PA specimens’ self-healing capability, resulting in longer fatigue life for them. On average, conventional and NZ-modified PA mixes with/without RAP could recover up to 32 and 48% of their fatigue resistance in all conditions.