Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395

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Construction and Building Materials

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Investigation on the effect of high amount of Re-recycled RAP with Warm

mix asphalt (WMA) technology
Di Wang a, Chiara Riccardi a, Babak Jafari a, Augusto Cannone Falchetto b, *, Michael P. Wistuba a
a
Braunschweig Pavement Engineering Centre (ISBS), Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig 38106, Germany
b
Department of Civil Engineering - Aalto University Rakentajanaukio 4, 02150 Espoo, Finland

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In this paper, the effect of the combined use of re-recycled Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) on the perfor­
Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) mance properties of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) was experimentally investigated at both binder and mixture
Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) scales. First, a virgin 50/70 Pen Grade binder and fresh Gabbro aggregates were used to prepare a conventional
Re-recycling
Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) for surface layers as a reference mixture. Then, the same reference mix type was used to
Performance properties
produce a mixture designed with 40% of RAP, 160/220 Pen Grade binder, and Sasobit to prepare the first
generation of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA-1) mixture. Next, WMA-1 was artificially aged to simulate the re-
recycled RAP, and the same mix design was adopted to prepare the second generation of WMA with re-
recycled RAP identified as WMA-2. Finally, fatigue and low temperature performance of the mixture was
evaluated for the three recycling level (reference, first and second recycling). In addition, rheological tests were
conducted on the entire set of six asphalt binders used for the mix design, including virgin 50/70, 160/220 Pen
Grade binders, extracted binders from RAP, WMA-1, artificial aged WMA-1, and WMA-2. Results of asphalt
mixtures indicate that WMA-2 shows better low temperaure properties compared to the other two mixtures
associated with limited reduction in the fatigue response. Concerning asphalt binders, similar rheological
properties were observed within virgin 50/70, and two WMA extracted binders in a wide range of temperatures.
The present study supports the idea of using re-recycled RAP up to 40% together with WMA technology in the
mix design.

1. Introduction
In the attempt to globally achieve the climate-neutral goal, different
technologies, materials, and methods have been proposed and evaluated
in the pavement construction sector. In this sense, circular economy and
resource efficiency have been seen as a roadmap to be adopted to
improve the resilience of infrastructures while maximizing their asso­
ciated climate and economic benefits. Various types of waste materials
such as Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), Construction and Demoli­
tion Waste (CDW), steel slags, plastics, crumb rubber, and glass have
been successfully recycled in pavement construction [1–3]. Among
these end-of-life materials, RAP has become the most commonly recy­
cled material in asphalt pavements [4–6]. Nevertheless, as the pavement
infrastructures continue to age, the need for an established routine-
based and repeated recycling process emerges as a fundamental prac­
tice to be developed and adopted in the road construction industry.
In the past and more recently, re-recycling of asphalt pavement was
investigated in different studies in Japan, U.K., Switzerland, and South
Korea [3,7–10]. The experimentation conducted in this series of
research efforts has shown that RAP has the potential of being used for a
second round of recycling up to a content of 40% in conventional Hot
Mix Asphalt (HMA). In addition, comparable performance could be
achieved with or without incorporating Asphalt Recycling Agents
(ARAs) [11] in the mix design.
Over the years, several studies have indicated that the aged RAP may
lead to brittle mixtures with reduced relaxation behavior and hence
more prone to cracking at lower temperatures and under repeated
loading [12,13]. On the other hand, the increased stiffness of the recy­
cled material may be beneficial at high temperatures resulting in
pavements having a better performance against rutting [14,15].
Although several research efforts were devoted to investigating the
possibility of using re-recycled RAP, most of these studies focused on the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: di.wang@tu-bs.de (D. Wang), chiara.riccardi@tu-bs.de (C. Riccardi), b.jafari@web.de (B. Jafari), augusto.cannonefalchetto@aalto.fi
(A. Cannone Falchetto), m.wistuba@tu-bs.de (M.P. Wistuba).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.125395
Received 2 May 2021; Received in revised form 30 September 2021; Accepted 24 October 2021
Available online 5 November 2021
0950-0618/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
D. Wang et al.
Fig. 1. Research approach.
application in HMA. Limited attempts are available in the literature on
incorporating other materials, such as ARAs and different production
techniques, including Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA).
WMA technology was proposed in the 1990 s to reduce the emission
of greenhouse gas and ultimately develop environmentally friendly and
sustainable transportation infrastructures [16,17]. Currently, this tech­
nology can achieve performance comparable to the conventional HMA
mixture with a reduction of production temperature of 20 ◦ C to 40 ◦ C
[17]. In a previous study [18], it was found that the decrease in pro­
duction temperature can be ultimately beneficial to the overall aging of
the asphalt mixture for both short- and long-term aging conditions. In a
recent state-of-art review work by Guo et al. [19], several previous
research efforts indicated that WMA designed with RAP shows prom­
ising performance over the entire spectrum of service temperatures.
Fig. 2. Grading curve of HMA.
2
Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395
However, no previous work was conducted on the combined use of re-
recycled RAP and WMA technologies to the knowledge of the authors.
Hence, in this paper, the potential of using these two technologies for
pavement construction is experimentally studied.
2. Objective and research approach
In this paper, the possibility of using 40% of re-recycled RAP com­
bined with Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) technology is experimentally
investigated at the asphalt binder and mixtures levels. First, a mix-
design commonly used for a dense-graded surface layer material in
Germany [20], AC 11 D N, was selected, and a reference RAP source was
identified. The AC 11 D N mix formula was then used for manufacturing
three different asphalt mixtures: one conventional Hot Mix Asphalt
(HMA) and two WMA mixtures containing 40% of original RAP and re-
recycled RAP, corresponding to the first and second generation of
recycled mixtures. Next, the fatigue and thermal properties of asphalt
mixtures were evaluated with the Uniaxial Tension Compression Test
(UTCT) [21] and Thermal Stress Restrained Specimen Test (TSRST)
[22], respectively. Meanwhile, the rheological properties of the six
different asphalt binders used for the mixture preparation were inves­
tigated. These consist of two virgin 50/70, 160/220 Pen Grade binders,
and four binders extracted from the RAP material and the mixtures
WMA-1, long-term artificially aged WMA-1, and WMA-2. Specifically,
Temperature-frequency sweep (T-f-sweep) tests [23], Linear Amplitude
Sweep (LAS) [24], and Binder-Fast-Characterization-Test (BTSV) [25]
were performed on an entire set of binders. The proposed research
methodology is summarized in Fig. 1.
D. Wang et al. Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395

Table 1 Table 2
Basic properties and mix design of the entire set of asphalt mixtures. Conventional testing results and PG for the entire set of asphalt binders
HMA WMA-1 WMA-2 Binder type 25 ◦ C Penetration (0.1 Softening Point PG
mm) (◦ C)
Recycled level virgin RAP re-recycled RAP
Aggregates 100% 60% Gabbro + 40% 60% Gabbro +40 % 50/70 53 49.7 70–22
Gabbro original RAP re-recycled RAP 160/220 187 37.0 52–34
Binder type 50/70 4.2% 160/220 3.6% 160/220 RAP binder 10 78.8 82–10
Binder content [%] 6.3 6.2 6.2 WMA-1 binder 44 53.2 70–22
Additives – 0.3% Sasobit 0.2% Sasobit 35 h PAV aged WMA-1 11 77.6 82–10
Density [g/cm3] 2.56 2.54 2.56 binder
Air void [%] 1.7 1.5 1.6 WMA-2 binder 46 51.8 70–22
Mixing 160 135 135 20 h PAV aged WMA-1 26 64.3 76–16
Temperature binder
[◦ C] 25 h PAV aged WMA-1 20 68.2 76–10
binder
30 h PAV aged WMA-1 15 71.2 82–10
binder
40 h PAV aged WMA-1 10 81.1 88–10
binder

Fig. 3. Black and white curves of the RAP material.
3. Materials
3.1. Asphalt mixtures
Based on the active German standard [20], a conventional mix
design for dense-graded surface layer mixtures, AC 11 D N, was selected
to produce all three different asphalt mixtures. In particular, a Hot Mix
Asphalt (HMA) consisting of an unmodified virgin 50/70 binder [26,27]
and fresh Gabbro aggregate was prepared as reference material. In
addition, two Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) composed by mixing a 160/
220 pen-graded binder and Sasobit with 40% recycled materials and
60% fresh Gabbro aggregates were manufactured to address the com­
bination of double recycling and WMA technology. The design and
actual grading curves of HMA are shown in Fig. 2.
A single target binder content of 6.2% together with an air voids
volume of 1.6% was set for all the mixtures. The actual binder content
and air voids are reported in Table 1. The Recycled Asphalt Pavement
(RAP) material (obtained from a local asphalt plant) that was used for
the first generation of recycled mixtures (WMA-1) has a Nominal
Maximum Aggregate Size (NMAS) of 11.2 mm [28]. According to EN
12697–3 [29] and EN 933–1 [28], the RAP gradations before (black
curve) and after (white curve) binder extraction were determined, and
the results are displayed in Fig. 3; the binder content in the RAP material
is 4.25%.
In the preparation of the mixtures, the dosage of warm mix asphalt
additive (Sasobit) and the amount of the 160/220 asphalt binder, which
is performing as an ARA [11], were adjusted based on the binder content
of the RAP and the properties in the recycled materials (Table 1). In
addition, a refined dosage of ARA and additive was selected to account
for the actual aging level of the artificially aged WMA-1.
In the case of WMA-1, the RAP provided by a local producer was
directly incorporated in the mix design. Next, the WMA-1 mixture was
artificially long-term aged in the laboratory to prepare the second gen­
eration of RAP (re-recycled RAP). For this purpose, a laboratory aging
process on loose mixtures proposed in the past was adopted. This relies
on the use of the Pressure Ageing Vessel (PAV) [30] with a duration of
20 h at a temperature of 90 ◦ C under the pressure of 2.1 MPa [31]. To
obtain aging level and associated rheological properties comparable to
the original RAP material, several aging durations (20 h, 25 h, 30 h, 35
h, and 40 h) were used to artificially age the WMA-1 mixture after
reducing it to a loose condition (Fig. 4). At each aging level, the artificial
aged WMA-1 extracted binder was compared with the RAP binder. The
parameters of the Performance Grade (PG) [32] and penetration grading
[26] systems were used for this purpose. When the duration of 35 h was
used, similar PG and penetration grading were obtained for artificial
aged WMA-1 and RAP extracted binders. Details on the different aging
levels and grading parameters are reported in the next section (Table 2).
Finally, the corresponding WMA-2 mixture was prepared with re-
recycled RAP (artificially aged WMA-1 mixture after 35 h of PAV).
In the last fabrication step, the German roller sector compactor [33]
was used to prepare mixtures slabs (320 mm × 260 mm × 100 mm) from
which prismatic specimens were cut for fatigue [34] and low

Fig. 4. PAV aging method for asphalt mixtures: (a) loose materials; (b) configuration.

3
D. Wang et al.
Fig. 5. Testing configuration for the fatigue behavior of asphalt mixture [43]
temperature [22] testing.
3.2. Asphalt binders
In the present section, an initial set of six different asphalt binders
were used and characterized. In addition to these binders, different
mixture aging durations for WMA-1 extracted binders were considered
and evaluated to achieve similar characteristics to those of the original
reference RAP binder. As previously mentioned, this process was
adopted to prepare the second generation of RAP to be used for the
preparation of the WMA-2 mixture. The first material consisted of a
virgin 50/70 Pen Grade binder [26,35] that was used for the reference
mixture. The second fresh material was a soft 160/220 pen-grade
asphalt binder that acts as an ARA in WMA mixtures. The remaining
three binders were obtained through the extraction and recovery process
[29] directly from the RAP material, WMA-1, and WMA-2 mixtures,
respectively. The grading of the different asphalt binders was performed
both with the pen-grade methods [26] and the Performance Grade (PG)
system [32]. Table 2 reports the characterization results for the six
binders used for further investigation in the present research together
with the binders extracted from the artificially aged WMA-1 at different
mixture aging durations. The latter were used for comparison purposes
to select the optimal WMA-1 aged binder to recreate a material similar to
the RAP extracted binder.
4. Experimental work
This section describes the experimental method adopted in this
study. First, the tests on asphalt mixtures are presented, followed by
those conducted on the binders.
4.1. Asphalt mixtures
Fatigue and low temperature response of the three asphalt mixtures
prepared for this research were evaluated with the cyclic UTCT [21,34]
and TSRST [22] methods, respectively.
4.1.1. Uniaxial Tension Compression test (UTCT)
In this study, the Uniaxial Tension Compression Test (UTCT) method
[21] under a sinusoidal cyclic stress loading mode was used to evaluate
the fatigue behavior of the asphalt mixtures. A constant frequency of 10
Hz and a testing temperature of 20 ◦ C were selected. An amplitude
sweep test, with a strain level, ε, smaller than 25 × 10-6m/m, was
initially performed to decide the suitable stress level within the LVE
4
Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395
Fig. 6. Schematic to obtain the Nmacro and Nf50 based on the maximum value of
ER and the half value of E0.
range. An initial amplitude stress level of 0.3 MPa was determined and
used for the first 2000 cycles. Then, an additional 0.15 MPa was added
to every 2000 cycles until the specimen experience macro cracking
phenomena. This method is intended to simulate the accumulated
deteriorating effects of the repeated traffic loading and has been vali­
dated in a previous study by the authors [21]. Such an experimental
procedure was developed in the recent past in Germany [21] as an
alternative to the conventional standardized fatigue test described in EN
12697–24 [34]. The testing configuration is shown in Fig. 5. A prismatic
specimen was used for this purpose, and the real-time deformation was
captured by using two Linear Variable Differential Transformers
(LVDTs), attached to both sides of the test sample. The dimensions of the
specimen were set to 40 mm × 40 mm × 160 mm based on the
recommendation of the current European standard [22] on the mixture
aggregate size.
Two parameters, Nf50 and Nmacro, were used to evaluate the fatigue
resistance of asphalt mixtures (see schematic in Fig. 6) [36]. Nf50 iden­
tifies the loading cycle numbers associated with a 50% decrease in the
initial stiffness modulus E0 (average value of the initial 500 cycles
stiffness modulus). Nmacro can be obtained from the peak of energy ratio,
ER, curve as this is associated with the beginning of the macro-crack
(Fig. 6). ER is calculated with Equation (1):
ER(N) ∼ N⋅|E|N (1)
where |E|N is the stiffness modulus, and N is the corresponding
loading cycle numbers.
Both allowable load cycle numbers, Nf50 and Nmacro, provide an
estimation of the fatigue life.
4.1.2. Thermal stress Restrained specimen test (TSRST)
The low temperature resistance of asphalt mixtures was addressed
with the TSRST tests [22]. Two parameters, Fracture temperature, TF
[◦ C], and corresponding thermal strength, σ cry [MPa], were recorded for
comparison purposes. The tests were applied conducted on the entire set
of three mixtures, and three replicates were prepared. Further details on
the testing protocol can be found in the European standard EN 12697–46
[22].
4.2. Asphalt binders
The behavior of the asphalt binders was evaluated based on three
experimental methods. Temperature-frequency sweep (T-f-sweep) tests,
Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) [24], and Binder-Fast-Characterization-
Test (BTSV) [30,25], were performed with a Dynamic Shear Rheom­
eter (DSR) [23] (Fig. 7a) to rheologically characterize the entire set of
six asphalt binders displayed in the top part of Table 2 (light gray).
4.2.1. Temperature-frequency sweep tests
T-f-sweep tests were conducted to the entire set of six binders over a
D. Wang et al. Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395

Fig. 7. (a) available DSR device, (b) 25 mm, (c) 8 mm and (d) 4 mm plate-plate geometries.

temperature range from − 30 ◦ C to + 80 ◦ C with an interval of 10 ◦ C, and
covering a frequency between 0.1 and 10 Hz. For each material and
testing condition, an amplitude sweep (A-sweep) test was first per­
formed to identify the Linear Viscoelastic (LVE) range and determine the
suitable stress/strain value. For the T-f-sweep test, at least two replicates
were prepared for each binder and geometry. To cover the entire spec­
trum of temperatures, three different testing geometries, 25, 8, and 4
mm (Fig. 7 b, c, and d), were selected. Based on the available DSR de­
vices’ capability [37], a mixed-mode approach using strain-control at
high temperatures while stress-control for intermediate and low tem­
peratures, was adopted to obtain more reliable results. It should be
noticed that for low temperature DSR tests with the 4 mm geometry, a
novel experimental and data preprocessing method, previously devel­
oped by the authors [38], was applied. More information about the 4
mm DSR method can be found elsewhere [39,40].
4.2.2. Linear amplitude sweep (LAS)
Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) test was used to evaluate the binders
fatigue performance by using the 8 mm DSR geometry at 20 ◦ C (Fig. 7c),
detailed testing protocol is presented in the AASHTO standard TP101
[24]. A minimum of three replicates was performed for each material.
The principle of this test relies on an oscillatory strain sweep test that
generates damage to the asphalt binder by applying linear continuously
increasing strain amplitudes. In Equation 2 [24], the number of cycles to
failure was calculated with the failure definition of a 35% reduction
compared to the initial modulus.
Nf = A(γmax )B (2)
where A and B are Visco-Elastic Continuum Damage (VECD) model
coefficients. Parameter A is related to the storage capability of the

Fig. 8. BTSV plane and example of binders blending in the context of recycling.

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D. Wang et al. Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395

Fig. 9. Changing of stiffness modulus and Nf50 for the entire set of asphalt mixtures.

material; it represents the ability to keep its integrity during the loading
Table 4
cycles and damage accumulation. Therefore, when the storage modulus
TSRST results for the entire set of asphalt mixtures
decreases at higher loading cycles (a reduction for A), the material
presents reduced fatigue resistance due to the accumulated damage. HMA SD* WMA- SD* WMA- SD*
1 2
Parameter B describes the sensitivity of the asphalt binder to strain level
change. Higher absolute values of parameter B indicate that the fatigue fracture temperature TF –23.3 0.81 − 25.0 0.65 − 27.3 0.52
life decreases at a higher rate when strain level amplitude increases. [◦ C]
thermal strength σcry 4.764 0.43 4.775 0.54 4.632 0.43
Therefore, a higher A combined with a lower absolute B implies rela­ [MPa]
tively better fatigue resistance.
In this study, the entire set of six asphalt binders in the upper part of SD*: standard deviation
Table 2 were attempted to be tested. However, due to the high stiffness
of the RAP binder [5,41] and the 35 h PAV aged WMA-1 binder, these this method can be further used to design asphalt mixtures containing
two materials failed at much lower strain (2%) levels compared to the recycled materials and ARAs [2,11].
maximum 30% strain of the LAS procedure. Therefore, LAS results were
obtained only on the remaining four asphalt binders. 5. Results and analysis

4.2.3. Binder-Fast-Characterization-Test (BTSV) 5.1. Asphalt mixtures

In Europe, the penetration grading system [26] is commonly adopted
to characterize and grading the asphalt binder. However, it was
observed that this system is unable to provide sufficiently reliable re­
sults, especially for modified and recycled binders. For this reason, an
alternative testing method named Bitumen Typisierungs Schnell Ver­
fahren - BTSV (Binder-Fast-Characterization-Test) [25] was proposed in
the recent past.
The experimental procedure relies on the application of the DSR at
high temperatures (25 mm geometry). During the test, a steady increase
in temperature (from 20 ◦ C to 90 ◦ C and ΔT = 1.2 ◦ C/min) is imposed on
the binder sample, which is subjected to a constant shear stress of 500 Pa
at a frequency of 10 rad/s (1.59 Hz). Based on a large binder dataset, an
average critical value of |G*| equal to 15 kPa was associated with the
corresponding softening point temperature [25]. As a result, two key
parameters are recorded, the softening temperature (TBTSV), and the
corresponding phase angle (δBTSV), to generate the BTSV plane (TBTSV -
δBTSV) (Fig. 8). Besides replacing the softening point, it was shown that
5.1.1. Uniaxial Tension Compression test (UTCT)
Four samples were tested for each material to achieve good repeat­
ability. A simple visual comparison of the stiffness modulus |E| vs. the
number of loading cycles is shown in Fig. 9. It can be observed that HMA
and WMA-1 mixtures have very similar fatigue behavior, while a slight
decrease in fatigue response is experienced for WMA-2. To better un­
derstand the effect of recycled materials on fatigue behavior, numerical
results are listed in Table 3 with the summary of E0, Nf50, NMacro, and
ERmax. Also, since this test was performed in a stress-controlled mode,
the initial vertical deformation in the first 1000 cycles was calculated
and displayed.
In Table 3, similar parameters are found within these three mixtures.
WMA-1, containing the original RAP material, exhibits the best fatigue
performance, while HMA and WMA-2 show a comparable fatigue
response. In the case of WMA-2, a limited reduction was found in ERmax
and Nf50 compared to the other two materials, while HMA has the lowest

Table 3
Summary of the fatigue testing results for the entire set of asphalt mixtures
HMA SD* WMA-1 SD* WMA-2 SD*

E0 [MPa] 5813.925 321.025 6321.815 456.552 6145.089 654.653

Nf50 [-] 12,397 561 12,684 876 10,420 549
Nmacro [-] 5732 321 6404 264 5810 354
ERmax [MPa] 4.04E + 10 4.03E + 08 4.31E + 10 9.85E + 07 3.74E + 10 2.22E + 08
initial deformation [mm] 0.0093 0.0001 0.0093 0.0006 0.0102 0.0006

SD*: standard deviation

6
D. Wang et al. Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395

Fig. 10. Master curve for all binders: (a) Dynamic shear modulus |G*|; (b) Phase angle δ.

E0 and Nmacro. Therefore, overall similar fatigue behavior can be 5.2. Asphalt binders
observed for the WMA-2 mixture compared with the other two mate­
rials; this is especially true for HMA. In this study, due to the limited 5.2.1. Temperature-frequency sweep tests
amount of re-recycled RAP materials, only a single stress level and one Master curves of complex modulus, |G*|, and phase angle, δ, were
temperature were used to easily compare fatigue behavior. generated based on the Christensen-Anderson-Marasteanu (CAM) model
[42,43] and the Williams–Landel–Ferry (WLF) equation [44]. The
5.1.2. Thermal stress Restrained specimen test (TSRST) equations are shown below:
In the present section, the fracture temperature and the related
G∞ 90me
thermal strength are reported to address the effect of recycled materials G*(f , T) = [ ]me /k andδ = (1)
1 + (fc /f )k
on the low temperature response in Table 4.
k
1 + (fc /aT (T)f )
Lower failure temperatures are observed in the WMA mixture pre­
pared with recycled materials. WMA-2 mixture containing re-recycled c1 (T − T0 )
RAP exhibits the best thermal cracking behavior. In the case of ther­ logaT (T) = − (2)
c2 + (T − T0 )
mal strength, all the mixtures present a similar response, with a mod­
erate reduction for WMA-2. As for fatigue, the potentially less aged where,
recycled material incorporated in WMA-2 may be the reason why lower f is the frequency (Hz); fc is the location parameter (frequency at
thermal cracking temperature is observed as a consequence of better which G′ = G′′ ); aT(T) is the horizontal shift factor at temperature T [44];
relaxation properties. G∞ is the glassy shear modulus when frequency f →∞; k and me are
dimensionless shape parameters; T0 is the reference temperature; c1 and
c2 are constants. A reference temperature of 20 ◦ C was selected in thi
study. In Fig. 10, the master curves of the complex shear modulus, |G*|,
and phase angle, δ, are illustrated for the entire set of six asphalt binders.

7
D. Wang et al. Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395

Table 5
Parameters of CAM model and WLF equation of master curves
Asphalt Binders G0 (MPa) G∞ (MPa) fc k me c1 c2 R2

50/70 0 1100 96.03 0.206 1.05 15.46 135.76 1.000

160/220 0 1100 1921.06 0.227 1.00 14.71 154.90 1.000
RAP binder 0 1100 0.02 0.135 1.18 28.57 222.67 0.999
WMA-1 binder 0 1100 50.12 0.181 1.06 16.23 144.59 1.000
35 h PAV aged WMA-1 binder 0 1100 1.33 0.142 1.16 25.38 230.53 1.000
WMA-2 binder 0 1100 106.47 0.213 1.02 15.09 129.65 1.000

Table 6 Table 7
G-R parameter and crossover temperature with the corresponding shear Fitted parameters A and B and failure criterion Nf50 under two different strain
modulus levels
Asphalt Binders G-R parameter Crossover temperature A B Nf50
parameter
50/70 1.36E + 05 − 2.844 10,107 [2.5% strain level]
Glover-Rowe (Pa) Tδ¼45◦ G*(MPa)
1408 [5.0% strain level]
50/70 488.00 6.6 34.334 160/220 0.86E + 05 − 2.286 10,454 [2.5% strain level]
160/220 1.43 − 6.0 44.829 2144 [5.0% strain level]
RAP binder 691543.16 25.7 22.435 extracted WMA-1 binder 1.35E + 05 − 3.181 7317 [2.5% strain level]
WMA-1 binder 501.32 7.2 32.972 807 [5.0% strain level]
35 h PAV aged WMA-1 binder 621451.65 23.8 31.525 extracted WMA-2 binder 1.39E + 05 − 3.428 8234 [2.5% strain level]
WMA-2 binder 382.43 5.8 30.865 1055 [5.0% strain level]

It can be seen that, except for the RAP and 35 h PAV aged WMA-1
Table 8
binder, all the other binders have a similar trend for both shear
BTSV parameters for the entire set of asphalt binders
modulus and phase angle. It is not surprising that the RAP and 35 h PAV
aged WMA-1 binders locate in the region of high complex modulus and Asphalt binders TBTSV [◦ C] δBTSV [◦ ]

low phase angle, while the 160/220 binder presents an opposite
behavior while. A trend similar to that of the virgin 50/70 binder can be
observed for the two binders extracted from the WMA mixtures; this
suggests that the combination of soft 160/220 binder, RAP binder, and
WMA additives was capable of achieving similar target design properties
to the virgin material.
Besides the simple visual comparison, accurate evaluation of the
asphalt binders’ rheological properties can be obtained from the pa­
rameters of the CAM model and the WLF equation. Table 5 lists all fitting
parameters of the CAM model and WLF equation for the entire set of
asphalt binders. The coefficient of determination R2 is listed in the last
column. The parameters in Table 5 provide a clear understanding of the
rheological behavior of asphalt binders and confirm the finding in the
visual comparison of the master curves. Asphalt binders in both WMA
mixtures present similar rheological properties to the target virgin 50/
70 binder.
Additional parameters can be used to characterize the rheological
behavior of asphalt binders further and indirectly evaluate the effect of
aging, such as the Glover-Rowe parameter [45], the rheological index R
[46], and the crossover temperature [47]. Detailed definitions and ex­
planations about these parameters can be found in previous publications
[47–49]. In this study, crossover temperature (where the phase equals to
45◦ at 1.59 Hz) and the Glover-Rowe parameter are derived from the
master curves to analyze the impact of aging on the binder response. The
equation of Glover-Rowe parameter is given below:
G* × (cosδ)2
G-R=
sinδ
where, G* and δ are the complex modulus and phase angle at 15 ◦ C
and 0.005 rad/s. The results of these two parameters of the entire set of
six asphalt binders are listed in Table 6.
It can be seen that the RAP together with 35 h PAV aged WMA-1, and
160/220 binders present the stiffest and softest characteristics, respec­
tively. The reference virgin 50/70 binder has similar values with the two
binders extracted from WMA mixtures. A similar trend is observed for
the crossover temperature of the 50/70 binder and the binder extracted
from the WMA-2 mixture. Both the G-R parameter and the crossover
temperature support the results of the rheological analysis performed on
50/70 51.8 81.5
160/220 39.8 82.5
extracted RAP binder 80.1 76.2
35 h PAV aged WMA-1 binder 76.3 74.7
extracted WMA-1 binder 53.1 79.0
extracted WMA-2 binder 52.1 82.1
the master curves.
5.2.2. Linear amplitude sweep (LAS)
The output of the LAS tests is presented in Table 7. As previously
remarked, the RAP and 35 h PAV aged WMA-1 binders failed immedi­
ately, and it was no possible to record enough data to calculate the fa­
tigue parameters; therefore, the LAS results for this material are not
included.
Except for the soft 160/220 binder, similar values of parameter A are
observed for the 50/70 and the WMAs extracted binders. Concerning
parameter B, a closer value is observed for WMA-1 and WMA-2 than the
original binder 50/70. Hence, the asphalt binder from the reference
mixture and WMA-1 have a similar fatigue response, while the WMA-2
asphalt binder presents a slightly poorer fatigue life. This trend is
consistent with what was observed at the mixture scale. The fitted value
of Nf50, which represents the fatigue life of asphalt binder, under two
different strain levels, 2.5%, and 5%, supports this finding.
5.2.3. Binder-Fast-Characterization-Test (BTSV)
The two parameters of the BTSV tests, softening temperature (TBTSV),
(3)
and the corresponding phase angle (δBTSV) are listed in Table 8 for the
entire set of six asphalt, the corresponding BTSV plane is illustrated in
Fig. 11. This consists of a series of boxes associated with the conven­
tional penetration grading system [25]. Such a graphical representation
facilitates the identification of the domain within which binders
commonly used in Europe can be located based on the BTSV parameters.
According to the BTSV results, a similar asphalt binders’ ranking can
be observed also in the case of the high temperature properties. Virgin
50/70 binder and two binders extracted from WMA mixtures have
relatively similar results while a maximum difference of 1.5 ◦ C and 3.1◦
are found within TBTSV and δBTSV, respectively. It should be noticed that

8
D. Wang et al.
Fig. 11. BTSV plane of the entire set of binders.
all of these three binders locate in the 50/70 box (Fig. 11). This suggests
that asphalt binders in both WMA mixtures present BTSV parameters
that are consistent with those of the reference binder at high
temperatures.
6. Summary and conclusion
In this paper, the possibility of using a re-recycled Recycled Asphalt
Pavement (RAP), up to 40%, in combination with the Warm Mix Asphalt
(WMA) technology for designing surface layer mixture was experimen­
tally investigated. A set of three asphalt mixtures, including one con­
ventional Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) and two WMA containing recycled
RAP and re-recycled RAP, were tested to evaluate their mechanical
properties. Different rheological tests were also conducted on the cor­
responding six different asphalt binders. The performance of asphalt
mixture and binder in terms of fatigue and thermal properties, and
rheological behavior was addressed. Based on the experimental work
and data analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn:
• The softening action of the fresh 160/220 binder can substantially
restore the rheological behavior of the aged asphalt binder to achieve
the target performance property of a virgin unmodified 50/70
binder. This is supported by the response of the WMA mixtures
containing different generations of recycled materials in comparison
to the reference HMA mixture.
• Similar fatigue and low temperature behavior were observed for
reference HMA and two WMA mixtures prepared with different
generations of RAP. Better low temperature fracture performances
were found for WMA mixtures prepared with recycled materials.
• Similar rheological characteristics, including fatigue and high tem­
perature properties, can be achieved for the extracted binder in both
WMA mixtures when compared with the reference virgin binder; this
is especially true for the WMA-2 mixture extracted binder.
• Careful attention needs to be devoted to the aging protocol of RAP
used in the laboratory as this may affect the actual degree of aging
and hence the final mix design formula ultimately resulting in un­
desired material performance. In the present study, aging time was
selected as a target parameter to achieve similar properties between
the original RAP and the second generation of RAP experimentally
obtained.
9
Construction and Building Materials 312 (2021) 125395
This experimental study provides evidence on the possible applica­
tion of re-recycled RAP combined with WMA technology. Nevertheless,
it should be remarked that only limited asphalt mixtures with re-
recycled RAP were prepared and tested in the laboratory environment.
Additional materials and expanded experimentation work need to be
evaluated and performed respectively to further support the current
findings with the ultimate goal of leading the research toward the
achievement of green and sustainable infrastructure.
Author Contributions The authors confirm contribution to the
paper as follows: Di Wang and Augusto Cannone Falchetto conceived
and designed the experiments; Di Wang, Chiara Riccardi, and Augusto
Cannone Falchetto wrote the paper; Babak Jafari performed the exper­
imental work, Di Wang and Chiara Riccardi contribute to data analysis;
Chiara Riccardi and Augusto Cannone Falchetto provided additional
recommendations; Michael P. Wistuba revised the paper. All authors
reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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