Evaluation of Effect of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) on Crumb Rubber Modified (CRM) Asphalt Binder

Abstract

Crumb rubber binder with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) has been experimented with to characterize the performance properties considering the workability, rutting, fatigue cracking and cracking resistance at low temperatures depending on the temperatures and aging states. Physical and rheological properties were evaluated to proceed with the study by applying Superpave asphalt binder testing and multi-stress creep recovery (MSCR). Based on the targeted experiments, the binder samples were produced at three aging states (original, short-term aged and long-term aged) using a rolling thin film oven (RTFO) and pressure aging vessel (PAV). The results revealed that (i) the addition of TPU into CRM binders has a potential effect on increasing viscoelasticity at the original condition, (ii) CRM binders containing TPU showed improved anti-aging performance based on results of RTFO residues and (iii) the inclusion of TPU made it possible for CRM asphalt binder to improve its fatigue and cracking resistance at low temperature.