Low Temperature Performance Characteristics of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) Mortars with Virgin and Aged Soft Binders

Reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has many advantages and is utilized to improve the high temperature properties of asphalt mixtures. Low temperature cracking is a predominant distress in asphalt pavements containing RAP materials. Thus, the evaluation of fracture resistance for asphalt mixtures containing RAP is of interest. The objective of this research is to explore the low temperature performance characteristics of RAP mortars containing sieved RAP and soft binders at three aged states. The stiffness values and m-values from bending beam rheometer (BBR) tests at three test temperatures of -18 degrees C, -12 degrees C and -6 degrees C were obtained to conduct the minimum low temperature grades. RAP mortar with a higher aged binder content had a higher minimum low temperature regardless of RAP source. In addition, RAP mortars with virgin soft binder had the best low temperature resistance followed by the RAP mortars with rolling thin film oven (RTFO) and pressure-aged vessel (PAV) binders.