Search results for "Asphalt pavement"
showing 10 items of 30 documents
Fatigue and Healing Properties of Low Environmental Impact Rubberized Bitumen for Asphalt Pavement
2017
The addition of recycled tyre rubber as a modifier to enhance the mechanical properties of bitumen has proven to provide asphalt mixtures with better mechanical performance. However the rubberised bitumen presents the limitation of requiring higher manufacturing and compaction temperatures. This could be solved by subjecting the tyre rubber to sort of pre-treatments such as: Adding warm-mix additives and/or using partial devulcanisation. These solutions have the potential of lowering the overall environmental impact of the asphalt pavement, however it is still not clear whether these can be detrimental for the rubberized asphalt binder mechanical properties. This paper investigates the effe…
A new procedure to determine the rheological properties of RAP binder and corresponding bituminous blends
2017
Abstract In this paper, a new and simple approach to estimate the rheological properties of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) binder is proposed to overcome the limitations of the conventional extraction procedure. This method is based on Dynamic Shear Rheometer tests performed on mortars composed of RAP fine fraction and virgin binder, together with a new back-calculation solution. The properties of the bituminous blends of virgin and RAP binders are obtained with a modified Nielsen model. The Voigt model is then successfully used to estimate complex modulus and phase angle of the RAP binder from the properties of the back-calculated binder blend. This procedure would prevent the need of RA…
Performance of asphalt mixes with high recycling rates for wearing layers
2016
The corresponding paper presents selected results of a research on the feasibility of going toward 100% recycling of asphalt pavements into surface courses through an increasing percentage of RA within the mixes. The research is carried out within a two-year CEDR Transnational Road Research project, AllBack2Pave, led by the Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany), together with the University of Nottingham (UK) and the University of Palermo (Italy), and finalised in January 2016. The main objectives of the project are - to establish, through laboratory tests on binders and asphalt mixes, whether the use of high rates of RA is feasible in developing mixes with high level of durability, and…
Influence of bio-based additives on RAP clustering and asphalt binder rheology
2017
The use of high Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) content in Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) allows developing innovative materials for the construction and/or rehabilitation of sustainable infrastructures. The chemo-physical phenomena occurring during production of HMA containing high RAP content should be investigated and considered for the mix design optimization. In fact, when additives are used as rejuvenators of the aged bitumen, these phenomena can be affected causing significant variations in the mixture characteristics. This paper aims at studying the influence of two bio-based additives specifically on RAP clustering, phenomena which can significantly affect the performance of high-content R…
A life cycle scenario analysis of different pavement technologies for urban roads.
2019
In the past, lowest price was the award criterion, given that structural capacity and safety were assured. In the last years, environmental, energy, and long-term impacts have been introduced (climate change, resource depletion, energy consumption, generated solid waste, discharged water, and emissions). Unfortunately, the introduction of new pavement technologies and materials (i.e., waste plastics) affects maintenance and rehabilitation processes and call for accurate and timeliness studies and criteria. Consequently, this paper presents an energy and environmental assessment of an Italian urban road and considers different material-related scenarios that fully comply with emerging techno…
AllBack2Pave: Towards a sustainable recycling of asphalt in wearing courses
2017
Nowadays, asphalt plant technologies allow producing asphalt mixtures incorporating up to 100% reclaimed asphalt. Unfortunately policies are still behind technology and in order to suggest guidelines for a widespread use for surface courses, road managers feel the need of having a deeper understanding of optimised design strategies, information related to the handling in asphalt plants and on the performance of these mixes. This paper provides the summary of the main results and the details of the main idea behind “AllBack2Pave 2013–2015” a two-years, 500 K€ project funded by the CEDR Transnational Road Research project that evaluated the feasibility of going towards 100% recycling of aspha…
Interpreting Life Cycle Assessment results of bio-asphalt pavements for more informed decision-making
2020
Due to emerging climate challenges, engineers are looking to replace the conventional asphalt pavements by utilizing bio-materials combined with Reclaimed Asphalt (RA). However, there is insufficient record in the literature assessing their environmental performance. This study addresses the analysis of the results obtained from a life cycle assessment exercise of asphalt pavements containing bio-materials and RA within their binder courses, developed within the BioRePavation project. The aim is to analyze the environmental benefits achieved, by means of hotspot mapping and sensitivity analysis of the most impactful factors of their lifecycles. Two alternatives are compared to a conventiona…
Smart vs conventional motorways: environmental impact assessment under realistic traffic conditions
2020
Abstract This research aims at assessing the environmental impacts exerted by a smart motorway compared to those of a traditional motorway. The study has global policy implications: it takes into account the impacts due to the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure and the environmental effects produced by the traffic emissions, taking into account smart technologies and truck platooning regulation. Through a classical LCA approach, 1 km-long smart motorway with 2 m-high embankment was assumed as the functional unit for the analysis. A realistic traffic condition has been considered. A comparison between environmental effects produced by the use of virgin material and by Reclaim…
Exploiting 3D Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment to Improve the Sustainability of Pavement Management
2020
Today road agencies worldwide face difficult decisions for construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of their road infrastructure as they try to balance limited budgets. This is further complicated rising environmental concerns over equipment and techniques used for these practices. This has led agencies to consider alternative approaches for smarter and sustainable pavement asset management systems. This paper considers the use of a low-cost 3D image modelling distress identification and classification proposal for data acquisition and analysis. To establish its environmental friendliness, a case study in Palermo, Italy, is considered wherein a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) exercise is do…
Optimizing artificial neural networks for the evaluation of asphalt pavement structural performance
2019
Artificial Neural Networks represent useful tools for several engineering issues. Although they were adopted in several pavement-engineering problems for performance evaluation, their application on pavement structural performance evaluation appears to be remarkable. It is conceivable that defining a proper Artificial Neural Network for estimating structural performance in asphalt pavements from measurements performed through quick and economic surveys produces significant savings for road agencies and improves maintenance planning. However, the architecture of such an Artificial Neural Network must be optimised, to improve the final accuracy and provide a reliable technique for enriching d…