ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to compare and correlate the crack resistance evaluation parameters of asphalt binders containing recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) and to identify binder crack resistance parameters that are reasonably representative of the mixture. Hence, a series of cracking resistance tests were performed on asphalt mixtures containing various percentages of RAP, which suffered from long-term oven aging, along with extracted and recovered binders. The asphalt binder experiments included the evaluation of performance grade (PG), frequency sweep, linear amplitude sweep. The experimental results showed that asphalt binders and mixtures containing RAP exhibited reduced crack resistance, and the addition of regenerant increased the crack resistance of RAP mixtures. however, the crack resistance of the RAP binder and the mixture containing the regenerant is still inferior to that of SBS. The relationship between the parameters used to evaluate the crack resistance of asphalt binders and RAP-containing mixtures was also investigated. Generally, the evaluation parameters of the crack resistance of the adhesives have a good correlation with each other. The low-temperature PG grade of asphalt binders, ΔTc, fc, R-value, and G-R parameters had a great correlation with the cracking resistance evaluation parameters of the mixtures, indicating the critical role of the asphalt binder in the cracking resistance of the asphalt mixture.
