On the Degree of binder Activity of reclaimed asphalt and Degree of Blending with recycling agents It's common practice to assume full blending of the aged binder of reclaimed asphalt (RA) within the design of new asphalt mixtures. Although being practical, this assumption has often led designers to asphalt mixtures lacking binder. Hence, going towards recycled asphalt mixtures (RAM) there is a need to have a better understanding of the blending phenomena, to have a general agreement on terminology and finally adapting RA classification and mix design procedures accordingly. This manuscript aims at being both a reference and stimulus for the scientific community to work in this direction and on this basis provides a nomenclature and a theoretical framework of the blending phenomena. The study is built upon a literature review on definitions, methods and influencing factors related with the blending phenomena and as a result an intrinsic property of RA, the degree of binder activity (DoA), is introduced for the sake of improving RA classification. Furthermore, the two well-known concepts of degree of Blending (DoB) and degree of Availability (DoAv) are redefined, within the proposed framework, together with practical suggestions to introduce them in mix design procedures. Keywords: degree of activity; degree of blending; degree of availability; recycled asphalt; recycling agent, blending phenomena Black Aggregate White Aggregate Softer RA binder: The layer of aged binder that does not move from the RA particles, but becomes softer and acts as a glue. Total RA binder: amount of binder potentially available as binding agent and composed of the RA binder and, when present, recycling agents. Unavailable RA binder: the amount of aged binder that cannot be considered available in a new formulation: This quantity is made of two components: Black Rock RA binder and Absorbed RA binder. 7. References AASTHO M323-12: Standard Specification for Superpave Volumetric Mix Design.

Recently, the reduction of the environmental burdens related to highway infrastructures has been in the spotlight. Within this context, the use of recycled materials in bituminous mixtures for road pavement construction and maintenance has the potential to mitigate the excessive use of non-renewable resources. Nevertheless, the material consumption is only one of the aspects that affects the sustainability of an infrastructure. Other relevant aspects related to environmental issues should be considered. The objective of this work is to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of asphalt mixtures containing crumb rubber (CR) (vulcanised or devulcanised) and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) assuming different Degree of binder Activation (DoA) of the aged binder by means of a life cycle assessment (LCA). The results show that the small amount of CR used for bituminous mixtures application does not justify all the additional consumption of resources and emissions associated with its treatment. These results are explained by the higher environmental impacts stemming from the treatment of the rubber and the higher amount of bitumen employed in the mixture. In turn, for mixtures containing RAP the analysis revealed an improvement in the score of all the environmental indicators considered.

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The need for road (re)construction materials is constantly growing. At the same time, there is a limited quantity of new, high-quality materials available and a buildup of secondary/recycled construction materials. One possible solution may be the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) in asphalt mixtures instead of natural aggregate (NA), which also promotes economic and environmental sustainability. The potential use of fine and coarse RCA in road asphalt mixtures is analyzed in this work. Nine asphalt mixtures were tested for base course layers, where RCA was used as a NA substitute. The impact of the quantity of RCA (up to 45% by mass) on the resulting physical and mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures was investigated, and consequently compared with the properties of a reference control mixture produced with NA only. Results reveal that the addition of RCA requires higher bitumen in comparison to the control mixture (up to 1%). Consequently, mixtures with RCA had 15−20% lower stiffness and up to 26% higher critical fatigue strain value (ε6). Although RCA mixtures contained more bitumen, their low-temperature resistance was slightly inferior compared with the control mixture (failure temperatures were up to 4.3 °C higher). In conclusion, asphalt mixtures with up to 45% RCA can be used without substantially reducing performance.

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