Effect of Crumb Rubber Particles on Antisliding and Noise-Reduction Performance of Asphalt Pavement

Abstract

Traffic noise has gradually become the primary source of noise in urban areas. The risk of health issues such as cardiovascular diseases and sleep disturbances associated with noise exposure are receiving widespread attention. The skid resistance of asphalt pavements is important for safe driving. However, its antisliding performance deteriorates owing to automobile driving, and the antisliding index cannot satisfy requirements of long-term safe driving. Crumb rubber-modified asphalt (CRMA) has been widely used owing to its characteristics, such as excellent noise reduction, antisliding performance, and durability. This study aims to investigate the effect of crumb rubber (CR) particle content (0%, 2%, 3%, and 4% by weight of fine aggregates in asphalt mixture) on the antisliding and noise reduction characteristics of asphalt pavements. The functional performances of three different types of asphalt mixtures were tested to obtain the best gradation. Then, an accelerated wear tester was used to analyze the deterioration of the antisliding performance under different cumulative load times. A British pendulum number (BPN) tester and 3D laser technology were used to measure friction properties and texture depths of asphalt mixtures with varying CR particle contents after wheel-load repetitions. The tire-drop and standing wave tube methods were employed to evaluate the noise-reduction characteristics and acoustic absorption performance of asphalt mixtures with varying CR particle contents. Finally, the optimal CR particle content was determined using grey-target decision-making based on the entropy weight method. The results indicate that adding rubber particles to asphalt mixtures slows down the attenuation rate of BPN and texture depth, which shows a clear enhancement of the antisliding performance. The addition of rubber particles to asphalt mixtures improves the noise-reduction performance in tire-pavement systems by increasing damping properties and the sound absorption coefficient. The asphalt mixture with 3% rubber particles exhibited the optimal performance.