Low-Temperature Performance of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene and Crumb Rubber Compound–Modified Asphalt Activated by Waste Cooking Oil Surface Treatment

Abstract

Compound modified asphalt with waste plastic and crumb rubber can enhance the application of crumb rubber–modified asphalt (CRMA) in engineering, and enable the recycling of waste resources. In this study, waste cooking oil (WCO) was used to activate crumb rubber and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) to obtain crumb rubber–modified asphalt with excellent storage stability and low viscosity. The viscosity and storage stability of crumb rubber–modified asphalt were tested by rotational viscosity test and cigar tube test. The force ductility test and bending beam rheological (BBR) test were used to evaluate the low-temperature performance of different crumb rubber–modified asphalt samples. The effect of the addition of waste cooking oil and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene on the low-temperature performance of crumb rubber–modified asphalt was explored by using the Burgers model fitting parameters and the ΔTc value between the limit temperature of the critical low-temperature performance grade. The test results showed that cooking oil reduces the rotational viscosity of crumb rubber–modified asphalt, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene enhances its storage stability. When the acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and waste cooking oil contents reached 4% and 3%, respectively, the rotational viscosity and separation index values of crumb rubber–modified asphalt decreased by 11.2% and 49.8%, respectively. Waste cooking oil notably enhanced the crumb rubber–modified asphalt’s ductility, particularly in the case of crumb rubber–modified asphalt compounded with 4% acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and 3% waste cooking oil, exhibiting the longest ductility and the highest toughness value, which were 85% and 75.6% higher than the original crumb rubber–modified asphalt, respectively. Insights from Burgers model parameters and ΔTc values revealed that waste cooking oil improves CRMA’s stress relaxation ability and reduces its critical low temperature, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene has no adverse impact on CRMA’s resistance to low-temperature thermal cracking. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) test results demonstrated that the addition of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene does not lead to a chemical reaction with crumb rubber–modified asphalt.