Laboratory Investigation of Cement-Treated Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement Material

Abstract

Cold in-place recycling is considered as a pavement rehabilitation technique that is more environmentally friendly than the common practice of simply constructing a new hot-mix asphalt (HMA) overlay on the existing wearing surface. This paper describes a laboratory experimental study for the formulation and mechanical characterization of cement-treated reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) material to be used as a base layer during the rehabilitation of pavements. RAP content was varied between 0 and 100% in order to study the effects of this parameter on the mechanical properties. Portland cement content was kept constant at 6% by weight of dry constituents. Results have shown that an increase in RAP content results in a decrease in compressive strength, flexural strength, indirect tensile strength, and elastic modulus. However, for any RAP content of 60% or less, acceptable mechanical properties for a pavement base layer were achieved. Unrestrained shrinkage testing showed statistically insignificant change in shrinkage strain with RAP content.