Performance evaluation of cold in-place recycling materials through a simple semi-circular bending test

Abstract

Cold in-place recycling (CIR) is a method of recycling existing Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavements. In this study, a new performance-based test method, called Fracture Index Value for Energy (FIVE), is developed to capture the fracture energy of the CIR materials. Furthermore, various stabilisation agents were used including engineered emulsion (EE), high float asphalt emulsion (HFMS-2s), commodity asphalt emulsion (CSS-1) and foamed asphalt. The FIVE test was first validated using disk-shaped compact tension (DCT) test and then was implemented on the study mixtures at their optimum stabilisation agent contents. The ranking of the mixtures and reproducibility of the FIVE test was proved to be true through inter-lab comparisons of the test results between two independent testing laboratories. The statistical testing results postulate that the FIVE test is a simple test method that is capable of characterising the cracking performance of the CIR mixtures.

KEYWORDS:

• Cold in-place recycling
• semi-circular bending
• emulsion
• foamed asphalt
• fracture index value for energy
• performance testing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.