Recyclability of Moisture Damaged Flexible Pavements

Abstract

Stripping has damaged some of South Carolina's asphaltic concrete pavements. It is not known whether the material properties of stripped asphalt pavement will allow its use for recycling. A field and laboratory study was initiated to investigate the feasibility of reusing moisture‐damaged asphaltic concrete; to determine the effects of antistrip additives on recycled mixtures; and to evaluate the recycled mix design procedures that use cored reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) instead of milled RAP. A total of 144 laboratory Marshall specimens were made and tested. In addition, field cores were obtained and tested before and after recycling. The dry and wet modulus resilience (MR) and indirect tensile strength (ITS), visual strip rating (VSR), and air voids (AV) of all specimens were obtained. Marshall specimens containing moisture‐damaged asphaltic concrete mixtures produced significantly higher strength values than those using only virgin material. Antistrip agents were found to be effective in increasing the strength of specimens in the saturated condition. The results also showed no significant differences among strengths of samples prepared with cored and milled RAP.