Organic-based recycling agents for road paving applications in cold-climate regions

Because of the aged binder properties, high Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) content asphalt mixtures are more susceptible to cracking failures than virgin mixtures. Thus the production of recycled Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) for cold climate regions, in which asphalt pavement is subjected to severe thermal stresses, needs more considerations. The present paper deals with three recycling agents for producing recycled HMA with standard quality for paving applications in cold climate regions. These additives were three eco-friendly bio-based materials from which two of them were derived from Amine and Oleic acid reaction and the third was a solid compound of Furanone. As a complete study, the research plan consisted of both binder and mixture-phase tests investigating the efficiency of the additives as a recycling agent, particularly for cold region HMA paving applications. In the binder phase, the additives were investigated in two different scenarios: (I) first the reference asphalt binder was aged then the additives were added (2) first the additive was added to the virgin binder then the compounds were aged. This was mainly for investigating the efficiency of the additives as a softening agent. Considering the goal of this research, all the tests were carried out following the testing methods of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the obtained tests' results were compared to the requirements of its technical specifications.