Sustainability of the optimum pavement model of reclaimed asphalt from a used pavement structure

Abstract

This paper demonstrates and provides additional findings and instructions to produce new cold-recycled layers of pavement structures spatially and temporally sustainable. At the same time, recycled pavement structures have been enhanced with optimum amounts of new stone materials and binders made of cement and foamed bitumen. The subject of the research is based on the examination of recycled asphalt from surface and bituminous base courses of pavement structures for use on higher-type roads. The aim of the research is to model the process of producing recycled asphalt by cold recycling to optimize the process of influential parameters. In addition, one of the primary goals of the research is to demonstrate a sustainable way of producing new cold-recycled layers of pavement structures. The obtained results indicated the inevitability of the use of recycled material from pavement structures with the possibility of applying secondary and tertiary crushing of recycled mass, which depends on the type of layer for which the recycled material would be used. The research resulted in an optimum mixture variant of the stabilization layer of pavement structure that consists mainly of recycled material from a worn pavement structure improved with a relatively small amount of new aggregate with the addition of minimal stabilizers made of cement and foamed bitumen. The results showed that the optimum mixture variant of the stabilization layer is spatially and temporally stable. Additionally, the presented optimum variant of the stabilization layer enables sustainable development of road networks with minimum consumption of new natural resources.