Relationship between Material Characteristics of Asphalt Mixtures and Highway Noise

Abstract

Traffic noise is a main source of total environmental noise. The major component of traffic noise is the interaction between tire and pavement. One way of reducing traffic noise is to engineer pavements such that tire–pavement noise is minimized. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between the tire–pavement noise generation (and absorption) and the material characteristics of asphalt pavements. This paper presents the impact of material mix design characteristics, as well as linear viscoelastic properties on sound absorption. To focus on the relationship between the noise and the internal material characteristics, a novel laboratory tire–pavement noise measurement system was developed. Although the individual material characteristics did not have an appreciable influence on the damping of sound, a strong correlation between the sound pressure level and a combination of several material characteristics was observed.

Rheological Characterization of Ground Tire Rubber Modified Asphalt Binders with Parallel Plate and Concentric Cylinder Geometries

“…Other than the above-mentioned engineering, economic, and environmental benefits, some other added-value benefits of using GTR in asphalt pavements can be found in the literature. Some of them can be listed as reducing tire pavement interaction noise [15,16], decreasing tire wear [17], providing better ride quality [18], increasing longevity [19], softening stiff binders in high RAP pavements [20], improving aging properties [21], decreasing ice retention [22], and increasing resistance to reflective cracking [23]. This study aims to fill the gap in the literature by investigating the rheological and mechanical properties of wet-process GTR-modified asphalt binders at various percentages using the CPG and recently introduced binder performance tests such as Delta T Critical, LAS, and MSCR.…”