96 Transportation Research Record 911 Use of Foamed Asphalt 1n Recycling of an Asphalt Pavement ADRIAAN VAN WIJK AND LEONARD E. WOOD The recycling of pavement materials is a cost-effective and energy-efficient method of reconstruction. Laboratory studies have demonstrated that foamed asphalt can be used with success as a binder in cold recycling. During the sum- mer of 1981, the Indiana Department of Highways constructed an experimental 9.0-mile (14-km) section in which foamed asphalt was used as a binder in cold recycling. The main purpose was to monitor and evaluate the construction procedures and the performance of such reconstruction. The initial concept was to use in-place cold recycling. Due mainly to the inability of the milling machine to reduce the pavement to a full depth of 5 in. (125 mm), the con· struction procedure was changed. During actual construction the initial pave· ment was removed in two 2.5-in. (65-mm) layers and the material stockpiled at a nearby central plant. Some additional aggregate was precoated with 4 per· cent foamed asphalt and mixed with an additional 1.5 percent of foamed as- phalt in a ratio of 1 to 3 to form the final base-course mixture. All mixing was done by a twin-shaft pugmill. The final mixture was placed in two layers with a total thickness of approximately 5.5 in. This new base course was overlaid by L25 in. (38 mm) of hot asphalt mixture. Tests were conducted before, during, and after construction to evaluate the properties of the mixture and the performance of the recycled layer. The use of foamed asphalt caused no serious problems during construction. Conventional equipment could be used with only small modifications. The recycled pavement could be opened to traffic soon after compaction without any problems. It was therefore also possible to keep the road open to traffic throughout the construction. Foamed asphalt appears to behave as well as a binder in cold recycling. The initial per· formance of the recycled layer is satisfactory. Recycling is widely accepted as a feasible alterna- tive to most highway rehabilitation and reconstruc- tion methods. This is shown by the wide interest in recycling at conferences such as the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, conferences of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, and international conferences on concrete pavements. In comparison with conventional methods such as over- laying or reconstruction with new material, recy- cling has obvious advantages in that it saves con- struction materials, energy, and valuable resources. McKinney (]:, p. 12) indicated at the Purdue Road School in 1979 that 94 percent of all paved roads in the united States have bituminous surfaces. This varies from state to state. For instance, bitu- minous-surfaced roads make up approximately 83 per- cent of total paved, hard-surface structures under the jurisdiction of the Indiana Department of High- ways (1). In any case, the percentage of bituminous roads remains high. It is therefore obvious that the recycling of bituminous pavements is an alterna- tive to be considered in a large number of main- tenance projects. An important aspect of recycling is the savings in energy, especially liquid fuel. The fuel and energy savings aspect was one of the characteristics of recycling that made it so promising after 1973. uuring the past few years, the emphasis in highway construction has changed from the major concern of energy conservation to the more effective use of limited funds. Halstead p. 1) indicated in 1979 that highway maintenance consumes a maximum of only 3 percent of the total energy used in the united States. Recycling alone will therefore not solve all the energy problems. Inferior construction practices may lead to excessive maintenance cost and energy use. In other words, although recycling has certain advantages over conventional maintenance methods or new construction, the performance of the pavement must also be taken into consideration. This might create a problem for the designer because recycling of bituminous pavements has been used ex- tensively for only the past few years. The performance of recycled mixtures has been studied in laboratories and has been reported to give very good results (3: 4, p. 68; 5). The only way to verify this is by field - application. The positive laboratory results have not been com- pletely verified, because of the relatively few cold-mixed, recycled pavements that have been con- structed and in actual use for this short time <il . This does not mean that laboratory studies are not important: on the contrary, they give the basic in- formation regarding the composition, performance, and possible application of new methods or mixtures at a relatively low cost. Less than 0.2 percent of highway dollars is spent on research by states and the federal government in the United States <.2• p. 9). COLD RECYCLING WITH FOAMED ASPHALT Recycling can be divided into two types based on the mixing procedure: cold and hot mixing. Cold re- cycling is used mainly to construct base courses. The binders traditionally used in the stabilizing of the cold-recycled material are liquid asphalt cement and emulsified asphalt. Another binder that shows promise as a stabilizer for virgin aggregate and recycled material is foamed asphalt. Foamed asphalt is the material obtained through the addition of a small amount of cold water (usually around 2 percent by weight of asphalt) to hot asphalt cement [usually at about 330°F (165°C)]. This creates an asphalt foam. The expan- sion ratio is defined as the ratio of the volume of the foamed asphalt to the volume of the asphalt ce- ment. unfortunately, the asphalt cement does not stay in the foamed state very long. The half-life is defined as the elapsed time (in seconds) from maximum expansion to the time it takes the foam to be reduced by one-half from the maximum volume. The idea of foaming asphalt was introduced by csanyi of Iowa state university in the late 1950s (1_). This method, which produced foam by means of a steam gen- erator, was altered by Mobil Oil of Australia Ltd. in the late 1960s (2). Foamed asphalt - has been used with success to stabilize virgin aggregate and sands in base courses since the mid-1950s (8-10). To our knowledge, there is no reported use of foamed asphalt as a binder in cold recycling in actual application before 1980. Laboratory research at Purdue Univer,; ity un foamed asphalt and recycling (11,E: 13, p. 361) showed that foamed asphalt can be used in recy- cling. Foamed asphalt has the advantage over as- phalt cement in that it can be used at a lower mix- ing temperature and over emulsified asphalt because it does not need extensive curing. The strength of the foamed-asphalt mixture relies heavily on the coating of the fines to form a mastic. Research also provided the necessary information for the de- sign of the foamed-aspnalt mixture. As indicated earlier, research can provide infor- mation up to a point. Only field application can evaluate the construction procedure and the per-
Use of Foamed Asphalt Recycling of an Asphalt Pavement
Jun 24, 2023
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