Engineering characterization of recycled asphalt concrete and aged bitumen mixed recycling agent

A recycling agent is commonly used to restore the aged bitumen to a condition that resembles that of the virgin bitumen. Three reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) stockpiles were sampled, and the aged binders recovered from RAP binders were mixed with recycling agents at ten levels to produce bitumen blends. The blends using virgin bitumen as the softening agent exhibited a significantly different rheological behavior from ones using the rejuvenating agent. The addition of a recycling agent could shift up or down the master curve of the blend vertically, depending on the engineering properties of the recycling agent. A normalized viscosity ratio (NVR) model was used to characterize the rheological properties of aged bitumen mixed with softening and rejuvenating agents. An interaction parameter was introduced into the model to consider the physico-chemical reaction between aged bitumen and recycling agent. This mixing rule was compared to the method specified in the blending chart by the Asphalt Institute (AI). The blending chart was shown to be applicable to determine the amount of the softening agent required to meet the target viscosity. The NVR model appeared to be a better tool for the rejuvenating agent to predict the viscosity of a recovered bitumen blend than the AI chart.