ABSTRACT
Many countries use the Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) into traditional asphalt mixtures for road surface layers, at a content of approximately 10–30%. So far, many studies have investigated the performance of these mixes dealing mainly with existing fundamental issues of the mix design process. The present study focuses on their functional performance and most specifically, on their skid resistance properties when used at surface layers containing RAP. To that purpose, a laboratory process is designed for the fabrication of both RAP-content asphalt mixtures and traditional Hot-Mix-Asphalt (HMA) mixtures in order to assess their skid resistance performance. HMA mixes are used as reference considering that these mixtures are most often used for road construction. The HMA was taken from an in-situ layering process. The emphasis was put on the impact of weather changes on materials’ performance. In an attempt to reflect field conditions, a laboratory simulation was performed to consider some weather changes (i.e. temperature, raining effect and contamination). Skid resistance measurements were performed on the fabricated specimens using the British Pendulum Tester. The analysis results showed promising aspects for the use of RAP in wearing courses for all the followed simulations. Overall, it is argued that the use of RAP did not appear to weaken skid resistance levels, providing as such an additional merit in its use apart from its low carbon footprint, in opposition to the production of new HMA mixes.
