Quality and Durability of Rubberized Asphalt Cement and Warm Rubberized Asphalt Cement

Abstract

This thesis discusses and documents findings from an investigation of performance-based testing of asphalt cement (AC), warm mixed asphalt cement, asphalt rubber (AR), and warm asphalt rubber. A number of control, warm, and asphalt rubber binders from Ontario construction contracts were investigated for their compliance with conventional Superpave® test methods such as rolling thin film (RTFO), pressure aging vessel (PAV), dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), and bending beam rheometer (BBR), as well as additional specification tests such as extended BBR and double edge notched tension test. The quality and durability of those binders were determined. Quality means the ability of asphalt binder to reach a set of specific properties whereas durability is the measure of how well asphalt retains its original characteristics when exposed to normal weathering and aging process. One warm AC and two field-blended asphalt rubber samples showed high levels of physical hardening which can lead to premature and early cracking. The warm asphalt cement lost 8 °C when stored isothermally for three days at low temperatures according to Ontario’s extended bending beam rheometer (BBR) protocol (LS-308). The two asphalt rubber samples lost 10 °C and 12 °C following the same conditioning. Many of the studied asphalt samples showed deficient strain tolerance as measured in Ontario’s double-edge-notched tension (DENT) test (LS-299). In a study of warm rubberized asphalt cement with improved properties, a number of compositions were prepared with soft Cold Lake AC and a small quantity of naphthenic oil. These binders showed little chemical and physical hardening and reasonable critical crack tip opening displacements (CTOD). Strain tolerance was much improved by co-blending with a high vinyl type styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer and a small amount of sulfur.