Rehabilitation alternatives using new asphalt rubber mixtures with Brazilian materials

Abstract

The Brazilian road network, which is predominantly composed by flexible pavements, has revealed a high rate of deterioration over the last decades. In addition, the heavy-load traffic and the age of the pavements have led one to predict a scenario of rapid deterioration, requiring rehabilitation alternatives to recover their quality. The use of crumb rubber from ground tires in bituminous mixtures for pavement rehabilitation has been used in last thirty years, especially in the USA. However, in Brazil, only a few experiments are known. Thus, the use of asphalt rubber mixtures requires a performance evaluation, trying to incorporate characteristics of local materials (bitumen and crumb rubber), as well as traffic and environmental conditions. The present study intends to develop mixture to improve the fatigue and permanent deformation resistance, taking Brazilian conditions into account. The new mixtures will be adopted as alternative rehabilitation techniques, in order to evaluate their influence in the improvement of the life span of existing pavements.