Research on the Application of Recycled PE in High Modulus Asphalt Mixture

In this paper, recycled PE was added directly to the asphalt mixture to prepare high modulus asphalt mixture. To study the influence of the dosage and molecular weight of recycled PE on the performance of asphalt mixture, three kinds of recycled PE with different molecular weight and three asphalt binders (Conventional, SBS Modified and PE Modified) were used to prepare eight kinds of asphalt mixture. Various tests, including dynamic modulus, wheel tracking and Lottman test, were conducted to evaluate the performance of them. The results showed that 1) the dynamic modulus of asphalt mixture modified by recycled PE is higher than the normal mixture and mixture prepared with SBS modified asphalt binder; 2) adding recycled PE directly into the asphalt mixture during mixing is more effective than preparing asphalt mixture with PE modified asphalt binder in making high modulus asphalt mixture; 3) the recycled PE used to produce high modulus asphalt mixture should have certain big molecular weight, more than 27,000, and the dosage of recycled PE should be no less than 0.4% of the total weight of asphalt mixture. The performance tests indicted the good high temperature deformation resistance property of asphalt mixture modified by recycled PE.