Reuse of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement in Asphalt Mixtures of a Binder Course in Palestine

Abstract

The application of using reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is an important issue in every country especially those which own less natural resources such as Gaza Strip. The undertaken research work includes the development of a proposal for Reusing RAP as an asphalt binder course in road pavements. The study aims at investigating the possibility to reuse RAP as a binder course in the asphalt pavement and to decide the percent of RAP in the mix. The proposed study has been developed using RAP and mixing it with different percents of virgin aggregate as 0%, 30%, 70%, and 100% so as to know the maximum percent of RAP to be added and its best bitumen content by testing 60 samples. In this research, number of tests on bitumen is implemented such as softening, penetration, and ductility tests; aggregate tests such as: sieve analysis, specific gravity, absorption, unit weight, moisture content, los Angeles are conducted; Marshal samples are prepared using both different mixes of RAP and virgin aggregate to investigate the properties of the asphalt mix; flow, stability and comparing the results with the specifications in this research the bitumen in the RAP. Its noticed that the bitumen content increases by increasing the RAP percent. Study recommends that RAP is to be used in asphalt binder with a maximum percent of 50% -a bitumen content is 5.55% and it is preferable to use a percent ofrap of 30%with bitumen content of 5.43%. It is also recommended that more tests on different percents and different sample ages are to be conducted.