Seasonal Performance Evaluation of Pavement Base Using Recycled Materials

Yang Zhang, Bora Cetin and Tuncer B. Edil
Additional contact information
Yang Zhang: School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Bora Cetin: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Tuncer B. Edil: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-15

Abstract: Using recycled pavement materials to construct new pavement base is currently an important construction strategy bringing improved sustainability. This study investigates the long-term performance of pavement bases constructed with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), and blends with natural aggregates in a seasonal frost region. The stabilization effect of fly ash on RAP was studied as well. In situ falling weight deflectometer (FWD) tests were routinely conducted to provide seasonal deflection data, which were used to back-calculate the layer modulus. Seasonal changes in the base layer modulus along with the pavement ride quality were monitored. One of the two lanes at the test sections was consistently subjected to traffic loading, whereas the other one was not. Findings from this field research indicated that after undergoing over 8 years of naturally seasonal freeze-thaw conditions, 100% RCA, 50% RCA, plus 50% natural aggregates, and 100% RAP, presented improved performance over 100% natural aggregates. However, 50% RAP blended with 50% natural aggregates performed comparably to natural aggregates only, and fly ash did not provide considerable improvement on the long-term performance of 50% RAP plus 50% natural aggregate base. Seasonal climatic variations turned out to affect pavement performance more critically than traffic loading.

Keywords: pavement base; seasonal freezing; falling weight deflectometer; back-calculated modulus; recycled concrete aggregate; reclaimed asphalt pavement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12714/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12714/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12714-:d:681086

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().