Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Life cycle assessment and multi-index performance evaluation of

semi-flexible pavement after composite modification by using fly ash,
rubber particles, warm mixing asphalt and recycled asphalt pavement
Weitian Zhao , Qun Yang *
The Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, College of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University, 4800# Cao’an Road, Shanghai
201804, China

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

Keywords: Semi-flexible pavement (SFP) has excellent potential to improve pavement performance and durability. This
Semi-flexible pavement study aims to reduce energy consumption and emissions in the whole life cycle of SFP based on ensuring its good
Life cycle assessment pavement performance through applying fly ash, rubber particles, warm mixing technology, and recycled asphalt
Fly ash
pavement (RAP) in SFP. It is observed that after the cement in the cement-based grouting material is replaced
Rubber particles
Warm-mix asphalt
and modified with fly ash and rubber particles, the energy consumption and emission of SFP in the whole life
Recycled asphalt pavement cycle are significantly reduced. Compared with the gain effect of energy saving and emission reduction brought
by cement replacement, the gain effect of environment-friendly modification of asphalt concrete matrix skeleton
is in general. In particular, the application of RAP with high content will instead increase the energy con­
sumption and emissions of SFP in the whole life cycle. At the same time, it is also found that the fatigue resistance
of SFP has a significant impact on its energy consumption and emissions. It is a crucial method to reduce the
energy consumption and emission of SFP in the whole life cycle to replace and modify the cement in the cement-
based grouting materials by using environmentally friendly materials or technologies such as fly ash and rubber
particles, and to guarantee or improve the performance of SFP.

1. Introduction
At present, global pavement construction is facing the contradiction
between the sustainability of the environment and resources and the
continuous development of the local economic level, which also makes
the practitioners related to pavement construction consider the impact
of sustainability in their relevant work, and actively look for relevant
means and methods to promote the development of sustainable pave­
ment [1–3]. This also corresponds to China’s announced goal of
achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 [4].
The sustainability of pavement is usually considered to be closely
related to materials, transportation, and construction. The material
stage, including the production of raw materials and pavement mixed
materials, is considered to have a much more significant proportion of
environmental impact in the life cycle assessment than in other stages
and also occupies a key position in the cost analysis stage [5,6].
Therefore, in the related research of sustainable pavement development,
the research related to material production has gradually become a
research hotspot. Examples are the utilization of fly ash, a by-product of
coal power generation, in pavement materials [7], the recycling of
rubber particles from waste rubber tires [8], the recycling of pavement
materials after milling [8,9], and the utilization of warm-mix asphalt
technology [10]. The application of these materials and technologies has
been proven to have good environmental benefits, resource benefits, and
cost benefits.
SFP is composed of cement-based grouting materials and asphalt
concrete matrix skeleton. The primary raw materials include aggregate,
asphalt, cement, water, etc. its resource consumption types are diverse.
Therefore, when considering reducing its impact on the environment,
resources, raw material costs, etc., it also needs to be carried out from
many aspects [11,12]. At the same time, it is necessary to analyze the
necessity and effectiveness of the application of various materials and
technologies. Such as applying fly ash and waste rubber particles in
cement-based grouting materials. In terms of performance, replacing a
certain amount of cement with fly ash can improve the fluidity of
cement-based grouting materials, improve the pouring rate of asphalt

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: zwthy@tongji.edu.cn (W. Zhao), yang667tj@163.com (Q. Yang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.129945
Received 26 August 2022; Received in revised form 25 November 2022; Accepted 29 November 2022
Available online 7 December 2022
0950-0618/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W. Zhao and Q. Yang
matrix skeleton, and then improve the durability of SFP [13,14]；On the
other hand, after replacing cement with fly ash and rubber particles, the
mechanical properties such as compressive strength and flexural
strength will decline to a certain extent. However, SFP, as a two-phase
material system composed of flexible and rigid materials, the too-high
strength of cement-based grouting materials will lead to brittle
cracking of SFP under too high stiffness. Relevant research results show
that the appropriate reduction of the strength of cement-based grouting
materials will make the strength matching between them and the
asphalt matrix skeleton better and then make the crack resistance and
fatigue resistance of SFP better [15–17]. At the same time, after the
surface of rubber particles is treated with silane coupling agent solution,
the growth of hydration products at the interface between cement and
rubber can be induced by the amphiphilic groups in the coupling agent
so as to form a denser interface structure, improve the interface adhesion
between cement and rubber particles, and further enhance the tough­
ness of cement-based grouting materials and improve the crack resis­
tance and fatigue resistance of SFP[18–20]. In addition, as industrial by-
products and renewable materials, the application of fly ash and rubber
particles in cement-based grouting materials can significantly reduce the
energy consumption and exhaust emissions of the final products, with
obvious environmental benefits [21–24]. Applying fly ash and rubber
particles in SFP has obvious necessity and bright environmental
prospects.
Similarly, as a typical environment-friendly technology, warm-mix
asphalt technology has been widely used in the production stage of
asphalt mixture. Compared with the mixing temperature of about 180 ◦ C
required by conventional asphalt mixtures, especially modified asphalt
mixtures, when the warm-mix asphalt technology is applied to asphalt
mixtures, its mixing temperature is usually about 110 ~ 140 ◦ C [25].
Relevant studies have shown that warm mix technology can signifi­
cantly reduce energy consumption and exhaust emissions and has
similar pavement performance to conventional hot mix asphalt mixtures
[26–28]. In addition, applying RAP can significantly reduce the demand
for asphalt binder and aggregate and liberate the land resources occu­
pied by stacking RAP [29,30]. The combination of warm-mix asphalt
technology and RAP in asphalt concrete matrix skeleton can signifi­
cantly reduce environmental impact and avoid resource depletion.
The life cycle assessment (LCA) in the field of pavement has been
relatively mature, including cement pavement and asphalt pavement
[31–33], and some pavement LCA studies related to particular industrial
by-products and recycled materials have proved that the use of indus­
trial by-products and recycled materials in pavement has apparent gain
effectiveness of environmental, resources and raw materials [34,35]. It
should be noted that the current LCA in the pavement field mainly fo­
cuses on cement pavement and asphalt pavement, which are two typical
pavement forms. The primary raw materials in these two typical pave­
ment types are cement and aggregate, asphalt and aggregate [36–38], so
the raw materials involved in the relevant LCA are relatively simple. For
example, based on replacing part of cement with fly ash to achieve the
design of energy-saving and emission-reduction cement concrete pave­
ment [39]. Analyze and evaluate the influence of different asphalt
binder types on LCA results of asphalt pavement [40]. Therefore, at
present, there is no LCA study on SFP formed by the combination of
cement, asphalt, and aggregate, which also shows the necessity of car­
rying out an LCA on SFP. At the same time, the research on the appli­
cation of environment-friendly materials is mainly based on one or two
materials at present, such as realizing the high dosage application of
RAP to reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of
pavement in the whole life cycle [41], using fly ash as a typical sus­
tainable building material for the production of green building materials
[42], combining RAP and rubber particles to reduce the environmental
impact of pavement in the whole life cycle [8], combining RAP and
warm mixing technology [10]. However, there is no LCA combining fly
ash, rubber particles, RAP, and warm mixing technology at the same
time. Considering that SFP is composed of cement-based grouting
2
Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945
materials and asphalt concrete matrix skeleton, it involves a variety of
raw materials. Therefore, in this study, fly ash, rubber particles, RAP,
and warm mixing technology are scientifically and reasonably combined
to form environment-friendly SFP. The LCA research and multi-index
performance evaluation of SFP are carried out in various aspects, from
pavement performance, energy consumption, environmental impact,
and raw material cost.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Raw materials and proportioning
SFP mainly consists of asphalt, aggregate, cement, water, and other
parts. On this basis, this study added warm-mix asphalt, RAP, fly ash,
and rubber particles into SFP, of which warm-mix asphalt and RAP are
mainly used for asphalt concrete matrix skeleton, and fly ash and rubber
particles are mainly used to replace part cement in cement-based
grouting materials. In order to compare the environmental impact and
raw material cost differences brought by different technologies and
materials. This study designed four different types of SFP, as shown in
Table 1. The basic information of RAP is shown in Table 2. The base
asphalt used in warm mix asphalt is Shell SBS (I-C) modified asphalt, and
the warm mix agent used is Sasobit. Through Penetration, Softening
Point, Ductility Test, and Rolling Thin Film Oven Test (RTFOT), the
content of the warm mix agent is determined to be 4.7 % of the mass of
base asphalt. The basic technical indexes of SBS modified asphalt and
warm mix asphalt are shown in Table 3. The chemical composition of
the cement and fly ash used is shown in Table 4. The rubber particles
have a particle size of 1.18 mm to 2.36 mm and are treated with a 2 %
concentration silane coupling agent aqueous solution.
Among them, the optimum asphalt content of asphalt concrete ma­
trix skeleton is determined through the Cantabro abrasion test and
Drainage test in this study, following the ’Standard Test Methods of
Bitumen and Bituminous Mixtures for Highway Engineering’[43],
which is also the most widely used method to determine the optimum
asphalt content of asphalt concrete matrix skeleton [44,45]. The selec­
tion of 35 % of RAP content is mainly due to the compaction charac­
teristics of RAP. Specifically, there are many “pseudo coarse aggregates”
in RAP, which is a kind of granular material similar to aggregate, formed
by the bonding of fine aggregate, mineral powder, and asphalt. Its
crushing value is large. After heating, the bonding performance between
fine aggregate and asphalt binder is weakened. Then, in compaction and
molding, the aggregate is easily broken due to the poor firmness of the
“pseudo coarse aggregate” itself and the poor firmness of aggregate after
years of aging. Thus, the aggregate particle size becomes smaller during
the formation of the asphalt concrete matrix skeleton, leading to the
design porosity becoming small. The measured results show that the
measured porosities of RAP with a single particle size of 9.5 ~ 13.2 mm,
13.2 ~ 16 mm, and 16 ~ 19 mm after heating and double-sided
compaction for 50 times are 12 %, 14 %, and 17 %, respectively,
which is far lower than the 31 %, 31 % and 32 % porosities formed by
the same heating compaction process with new aggregate. It was found
that after the RAP was heated and compacted, due to the poor firmness
of the RAP itself, it was fragmented during the compaction process. At
the same time, the asphalt and fine aggregate of some “pseudo aggre­
gates” are dispersed after heating, resulting in the overall thinning of
aggregate gradation, and the loss of overall porosity is pronounced. This
also explains why RAP cannot form the asphalt concrete matrix skeleton
with a large porosity. Therefore, it is necessary to form voids with the
help of the new aggregate. The larger the target porosity is, the more
new aggregate is required, which limits the mixing proportion of RAP in
the asphalt concrete matrix skeleton with a large porosity. Based on this,
this study measured the grading data of RAP in each particle size range
after heating and compaction. Based on this result, the required grada­
tion of the asphalt concrete matrix skeleton with large porosities was
compounded. It was found that in order to form the asphalt concrete
W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

Table 1
Specific proportioning of four different SFPs.
SFP type Asphalt concrete matrix skeleton Cement-based grouting materials

New RAP Optimum Hot-mix warm-mix Porosity Water cement Cement Fly ash Rubber particles
aggregate asphalt content asphalt asphalt ratio

1#SFP 100 % 0% 3.10 % 100 % 0% 25.10 % 0.6 100 % 0% 0%

2#SFP 100 % 0% 3.00 % 100 % 0% 24.70 % 0.6 80 % 15 % 5%
3#SFP 65 % 35 % 2.90 % 0% 100 % 24.90 % 0.6 100 % 0% 0%
4#SFP 65 % 35 % 3.00 % 0% 100 % 25.30 % 0.6 80 % 15 % 5%

The water-cement ratio is determined by integrating the fluidity,

Table 2
flexural strength, compressive strength, and volume shrinkage of
Basic information of RAP.
cement-based grouting materials [47] The weight of cement replaced by
Service life 12 years fly ash is generally considered 10 ~ 30 % [5]. However, combined with
Original gradation type AC-16, AC-20 previous studies and the actual measurement of this study, it is found
Structural layer Asphalt middle and lower layers (Table 6) that after adopting the 3 # scheme, namely fly ash and rubber
Type of original asphalt 70# asphalt
particles replace 15 % and 5 % of cement by mass, respectively.
Original asphalt content 4.1 % for middle layer and 3.9 % for lower layer
Compared with the 1 # and 2 # schemes, although the strength is
slightly sacrificed, it is not apparent, and the replacement amount has
been significantly improved. This also makes the cement-based grouting
Table 3
material prepared in the 3# scheme have a more significant energy-
The basic technical indexes of SBS modified asphalt and warm mix asphalt.
saving and emission-reduction effect [7,48]. Furthermore, the strength
Test items SBS modified asphalt Warm mix asphalt of cement-based grouting materials prepared by the 4# scheme is seri­
Penetration 25℃ (0.1 mm) 55 40 ously weakened. This is because the strength of the rubber particles
Ductility 5℃ (cm) 34 51 themselves is low, and after the excessive replacement of cement by fly
Softening point (℃) 89 85 ash and rubber particles, the materials involved in the pozzolanic re­
Flash point (℃) 278 278
RTFOT mass loss (%) 0.48 0.38
action become less, resulting in a significant decline in the strength of
RTFOT penetration ratio 25℃ (%) 78 75 the cement-based grouting material [49]. Therefore, this study selected
the typical 15 % fly ash and 5 % rubber particles to replace the amount
of cement for related research.
Table 4
Main chemical compositions of cement and fly ash. 2.2. Specimen preparation and experimental study
Oxide Cement (%) Fly ash(%)
After the relevant asphalt concrete matrix skeleton is formed by the
SiO2 23.6 52.8 Marshall molding instrument, rutting plate molding instrument, and
CaO 60.0 6.0
Fe2O3 3.7 6.9
rotary compactor, the cement-based grouting material is poured. After
MgO 2.3 3.7 28 days of curing, it is cut into corresponding sizes by the cutting ma­
Na2O 0.3 1.3 chine for relevant tests. The size of the low-temperature beam specimen
K2O 0.3 2.6 is a prism beam with a length of 250 mm, a width of 30 mm, and a height
Al2O3 7.2 26.5
of 35 mm. The size of the specimen in the semicircular bending test
SO3 2.6 0.2
(SCB) is a semicircular specimen with a height of 50 mm and a diameter
of 150 mm. A notch with a depth of 15 mm and a width of 1.5 mm is
matrix skeleton with 25 % porosities, the optimal dosage of RAP is 35 %, artificially cut at the circle’s center. These two related specimens are
and the dosage should not be too high [46]. The gradation of the final mainly used to evaluate the crack resistance, and fatigue crack resis­
asphalt concrete matrix skeleton is in Table 5, and all matrix skeletons tance of SFP, which are closely related to the durability of SFP
adopt this gradation. [11,17,50,51]. It should be noted that the fatigue stress level of the SCB
fatigue test is 0.25 [52]. See Table 7 for details.

Table 5
Gradation of asphalt concrete matrix skeleton.
Passing (%) Mineral fines Composite gradation

Sieve size(mm) New aggregate RAP New aggregate

13.2–16 mm 16–19 mm 13.2–16 mm 16–19 mm 19–26.5 mm

19.0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

16.0 100 100 100 100 0.0 100 95.0
13.2 100 0.0 100 58.7 0.0 100 58.5
9.5 0.0 0.0 56.5 37.1 0.0 100 17.9
4.75 0.0 0.0 33 24.7 0.0 100 11.6
2.36 0.0 0.0 13.7 12.3 0.0 100 6.1
1.18 0.0 0.0 4.6 6.6 0.0 100 3.5
0.6 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.6 0.0 100 2.6
0.3 0.0 0.0 0.6 3.4 0.0 100 2.2
0.15 0.0 0.0 0.2 2.7 0.0 97.6 1.0
0.075 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.9 0.0 94.5 1.8
Sieve bottom 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 0.0 45.6 0.8
Mass ratio 29.25 % 29.25 % 17.5 % 17.5 % 5.0 % 1.5 % —

3
W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

Table 6
Properties of cement-based grouting materials under different cement replacement amounts.
Scheme Cement replacement amounts Fluidity (s) Dry shrinkage 7d compressive 28d compressive 7d flexural 28d flexural
ratio (0.1 %) strength (MPa) strength (MPa) strength (MPa) strength (MPa)
Fly ash Rubber particle(%)
(%)

1# 10 5 12.7 1.36 24.7 30.6 3.1 4.3

2# 10 10 11.3 1.22 22.4 26.8 2.8 3.9
3# 15 5 11.5 1.57 22.1 26.5 2.7 3.7
4# 15 10 10.5 0.81 18.3 20.4 1.9 2.9

Table 7
Test Scheme.
Performance Test method Evaluation index Reference Specimen size Test Loading
temperature rate

High-temperature Wheel tracking Dynamic stability AASHTO TP 63–07 300 mm × 300 mm × 50 60℃ –
stability test mm
Water Stability Freeze-thaw Freeze-thaw AASHTO T283-03 φ101.6 mm × 63.5 mm 25℃ 50 mm/
splitting test splitting strength min
ratio
Low-temperature Low-temperature Bending strain Standard Test Methods of Bitumen and 250 mm × 30 mm × 35 − 10℃ 50 mm/
stability beam test energy Bituminous Mixtures for Highway Engineering mm min
(JTG E20–2011, China)
Crack resistance SCB monotonic Fracture energy [50,53] Φ150mm × 50 mm 15℃ 50 mm/
test (Semicircular specimen) min
SCB fatigue test Fatigue load action [54,55] Φ150mm × 50 mm 15℃ –
times (Semicircular specimen)

2.3. Life cycle assessment
2.3.1. Objectives and scope
LCA research aims to evaluate the environmental impact of applying
several different environmentally friendly materials in SFP. A functional
unit is defined as 1 m3 SFP. The transportation distance from the
aggregate, RAP, asphalt, and cement production site to the asphalt
mixture mixing plant is 50 km, 30 km, 100 km, and 50 km, respectively.
The distance between the asphalt mixture mixing plant and the con­
struction site is 10 km. The boundary of the LCA system includes the
construction period and maintenance period of SFP, wherein the con­
struction period includes the raw material production stage, mixture
production stage, transportation stage, and construction stage. See Fig. 1
for details. It should be noted that at the end of SFP life, the relevant
activities to be carried out mainly include milling, transportation, and
reuse. Among them, the energy consumption and emissions of the ac­
tivities of milling and transportation have been considered in the
maintenance period mentioned in this study. The reuse of milling ma­
terials is also included in the maintenance period. However, since the
semi-flexible pavement after milling is composed of broken cement
stone and aggregate, it is not suitable for the aggregate of semi-flexible
pavement. So it is considered to use these milling materials as the
aggregate of low-grade roads. It should be noted that in order not to
confuse the system boundary of LCA, this study only considers the en­
ergy consumption and environmental impact when stacking waste
milling materials. The energy consumption gain and environmental
gains brought by its reuse in low-grade roads are considered to belong to
another LCA.
2.3.2. Life cycle inventory (LCI) and impact assessment
The LCI data in this study mainly refer to the China Life Cycle
database (CLCD), including the LCI data of various stages and cate­
gories, such as the production of various raw materials, the mixture
production of asphalt and cement mixing plants, the transportation of
vehicles, the operation of construction machinery and milling vehicles
[56]. At the same time, in order to comprehensively consider the global
impact, this study also made reference to various relevant LCI data in the
world and finally formed the LCI data set required for this study

Fig. 1. LCA system boundary.

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W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

[8,57–62]. Among them, considered the energy consumption and Table 9

emissions of rubber particles and RAP based on the environmental gain Life cycle inventory of SBS modified asphalt.
of the whole production chain, including specific data on energy con­ Energy consumption MJ/t 1256.0
servation and emission reduction, which will also be used in the follow-
CO2 g/t 111403.5
up of this study. The life cycle inventory data of the three primary raw CH4 g/t 1.3
materials in the SFP are finally confirmed, as shown in Tables 8 to 10. N2O g/t 1.9
At the same time, it should be noted that fly ash is not only waste in SO2 g/t 961.0
the product system of coal-fired power plants but also a raw material in CO g/t 2529.0
NOx g/t 459.0
the production of cement-based grouting materials, which poses a sig­
nificant challenge to the allocation of fly ash environmental impact.
Relevant studies also show that different allocation methods will cause
significant differences in the environmental impact of fly ash related Table 10
technology products [5]. Currently, the commonly used allocation Life cycle inventory of aggregates.
methods include mass and economical methods. However, the mass Energy consumption MJ/t 32.7
allocation method usually enlarges the LCI data of fly ash, so only the CO2 g/t 2324.0
economic allocation method is used in this study [7]. CH4 g/t 0.1
After collecting the LCI, considering that the typical emissions in the N2O g/t 0.1
SO2 g/t 20.0
process of pavement construction are CO2, CO, SO2, NOX, and CH4,
CO g/t 52.8
combined [63], the primary energy consumption and environmental NOx g/t 9.6
impact indicators of this study are determined as follows:
Energy Consumption (MJ);
Global Warming Potential (GWP, kg eq CO2); parameters in the life cycle of SFP after the application of various pa­
Eutrophication Potential (EP, kg eq PO4); rameters was used as evaluation indicator, as shown in Equation (2)
Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP, kg eq NO3). [64,65]
Acidification Potential (AP, kg eq SO2). ( )/
Ej#factori#SFP − Ej#factor1#SFP Ej#factor1#SFP
It should be noted that the specific maintenance form in the main­ SC = × 100% (2)
(k#Indexi#SFP − k#Index1#SFP )/k#Index1#SFP
tenance stage is to mill out 25 % of the most severely damaged SFP each
time and then pave the SFP with the same material and performance as
Where, SC is the sensitivity coefficient; Ej#factori#SFP is the class j envi­
that at the beginning of pavement construction. It should be noted that
ronmental impact factor of i#SFP; k#Indexi#SFP represents the class k
the maintenance period also includes the production and transportation
sensitive basic parameter of i#SFP.
of raw materials and mixtures and the construction and other stages.
Therefore, the energy consumption and emissions during the mainte­
2.3.4. Further interpretation and explanation of the evaluation results
nance period are mapped to each stage of the construction period during
Normalization analysis is mainly used to unify various environ­
the study. The specific calculation method of maintenance frequency of
mental impact indicators into a comprehensive indicator to evaluate the
SFP in the design period is shown in Equation (1). The design period is
comprehensive impact of the build period of SFP on the environment.
20 years.
When combining multiple indicators to build normalization indicators,
1 it is necessary to allocate weights to each indicator. It should be pointed
Mfrequency = i=14 (1)
Fatiguemax /Fatiguei out that there is no consensus on weight allocation at present. Therefore,
two weight allocation schemes are considered in this study. The first one
Where Mfrequency represents the maintenance frequency of the SFP in the is to average all environmental impact indicators, that is, GWP100: EP:
design period, Fatiguemax represents the fatigue load action times that the POCP: AP is 0.25:0.25:0.25:0.25. The second is to enlarge one of them
SFP with the best fatigue performance can bear, and Fatiguei represents and average the weight of other factors. The weight of the emphasized
the fatigue load action times that various SFPs can bear. environmental impact factor is 0.7, while the weight of the other three
environmental impact factors is 0.1 [5].
2.3.3. Sensitivity analysis of environmental impact of SFP It should be noted that there are significant differences in the order of
It can be seen from the above that the primary impact sources of magnitude of various environmental factors, as shown in Fig. 2 below.
different environmental impact factors are significantly different, and The order of magnitude of the GWP100 of 1 m3 SFP during the build
the primary emissions of different raw materials are also significantly period is usually 10^2, while the order of magnitude of the other three
different. Therefore, when different environmentally friendly materials environmental impact factors is significantly lower than the GWP100.
or technologies are used to modify SFP, the final environmental impact Due to the significant difference in the order of magnitude, even if the
changes will also be significantly different. Therefore, in this study, it is weight of environmental impact factors with a lower order of magnitude
proposed to use RAP content, mixing temperature drop after the use of is emphasized, it can only affect the final comprehensive evaluation
warm mixed asphalt, cement replacement amount and fatigue resistance index in a small range. Finally, the weighted comprehensive evaluation
of SFP as sensitive basic parameters, and the ratio of the change range of indicators tend to be identical, losing the significance of weighting
various environmental impact factors and the change range of various environmental impact factors. Therefore, this study considers various
environmental impact factors of 1#SFP as the benchmark value and the
ratio of the same environmental factor in 1#SFP, 2#SFP, 3#SFP, 4#SFP
Table 8
and 1#SFP as the basic data of normalization analysis.
Life cycle inventory of cement.
Energy consumption MJ/t 3180.0
2.4. Multi-index performance evaluation
CO2 g/t 920028.0
SO2 g/t 254.1
NOx g/t 1436.6 From the perspective of practical engineering application, in addi­
CO g/t 356.1 tion to considering the impact on the environment, the engineering
COD g/t 31.1 performance and raw material cost of SFP are also essential factors. In
SS g/t 45.6
order to characterize multiple performances on the same scale, consid

5
W. Zhao and Q. Yang
Fig. 2. Pavement performance of SFP.
ering that 1#SFP has the most basic materials and manufacturing pro­
cesses, so this study takes the engineering performance, environmental
impact index, and raw material cost of 1#SFP as the basic reference
data, and the ratio of the same performance in 1#SFP, 2#SFP, 3#SFP,
4#SFP, and 1#SFP is taken as the normalized value to participate in the
discussion. Among them, the calculation method of normalized values of
energy consumption, environmental impact factors, and raw material
costs is shown in Equation (3), and the calculation method of normalized
values of engineering performance is shown in Equation (4) [6].
PSFP− i
Ni = (3)
PSFP max
PSFP− i
Ni = 1 − (4)
PSFPmax
Where Ni is the normalized value, i = 1 ~ 4; PSFP− i is the performance of
i#SFP, and PSFPmax is the maximum corresponding index value of various
SFPs.
The price of SFP’s raw material cost is mainly referred to Beijing road
engineering cost management network (https://www.bjglzj.com). From
1#SFP to 4#SFP, the transportation price and volume of raw materials
and mixtures and the on-site construction cost are highly similar, so this
study does not conduct a cost analysis for these stages.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Engineering performance of SFP
The results of pavement performance of SFP are shown in Fig. 2, in
which the data label is the ratio of pavement performance corresponding
to various SFPs and 1#SFP. Table 11 shows four different SFPs’ crack
resistance.
It can be seen from Fig. 2 that from 1 # SFP to 2 # SFP, with the
addition of fly ash and rubber particles in the cement-based grouting
material, the low-temperature stability and water stability of SFP have
increased significantly in addition to the high-temperature stability. On
the one hand, it shows that the strength of the cement-based grouting
material is obviously decreased after the fly ash and rubber particles are
added to the cement-based grouting material. On the other hand, it
shows that the toughness and stress transmission characteristics of the
cement-based grouting material have been significantly improved after
the fly ash and rubber particles are added to the cement-based grouting
material, thus strengthening the crack resistance characteristics of the
Table 11
Crack resistance evaluation results of SFP.
SFP type Fracture energy(J.m-2) Fatigue load action times
1#SFP 2117 17,347
2#SFP 2329 25,626
3#SFP 1740 10,875
4#SFP 1953 19,390
6
Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945
SFP under low-temperature environment and the ability to resist the
rapid change of stress in freezing and thawing cycles. On the one hand,
the reason for this change in cement-based grouting materials is that the
rubber particles have large elasticity and good damping performance,
which can effectively spread and disperse the self-shrinking or self-
expanding stress inside the cement-based grouting materials, and the
stress caused by external loads, so as to avoid the occurrence of stress
concentration [66]. On the other hand, the rubber particles treated with
the silane coupling agent can form a close connection with cement-based
materials through the Si-O-Si chemical bond. At the same time, the
filling of coupling agents on the bonding interface between rubber
particles and cement-based materials can induce the growth of hydra­
tion products on this interface, making the interface structure between
rubber and cement more compact [67,68]. All above have enhanced
cement-based grouting materials’ toughness and stress transmission
characteristics.
From 2 # SFP to 3 # SFP, after the hot mix asphalt is replaced by
warm-mix asphalt and RAP is used to replace some new aggregates, the
performance of SFP has significantly decreased, whether it is high-
temperature stability, water stability, or low-temperature stability. It
can be seen that the high content of RAP has a significant negative
impact on the performance of SFP. This point also corresponds to the
results of previous studies [10]. In addition, from 3 # SFP to 4 # SFP,
with the simultaneous application of RAP, warm-mix asphalt, fly ash,
and rubber particles in SFP, the low-temperature stability and water
stability of SFP have been improved at the same time, but they are still
lower than the relevant technical indicators of 2 # SFP, which again
illustrates the negative impact of RAP. It should be noted that the water
and low-temperature stability of 4 # SFP are almost the same as that of 1
# SFP, and the high-temperature stability of 4 # SFP decreases signifi­
cantly due to the obvious weakening of the strength of cement-based
grouting materials caused by the addition of fly ash and rubber parti­
cles [49]. It is clear that the comprehensive application of RAP, warm-
mix asphalt, fly ash, and rubber particles are not suitable.
It can be seen from Table 11 that the crack resistance and fatigue
crack resistance of various SFPs also show similar laws to their pavement
performance. With the application of RAP and warm-mix asphalt, the
crack resistance and fatigue crack resistance of SFPs decrease. With the
application of fly ash and rubber particles, SFPs’ crack resistance and
fatigue crack resistance are significantly improved, which is achieved by
the improvement of the toughness, interfacial bonding property, and
deformation properties of cement-based grouting materials by fly ash
and rubber particles [48].
In addition, based on the fatigue crack resistance results of various
SFPs, the maintenance frequency of various SFPs in the design period is
Table 12
Maintenance frequency of different types of SFP.
Type 1#SFP 2#SFP 3#SFP 4#SFP
Maintenance frequency (year / time) 6.9 10.0 4.3 7.7
W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

calculated in combination with Equation (1), as shown in Table 12. significant impact on GWP100 and EP, which is much higher than that of
other stages in the construction period, and the overall impact accounts
for 80 % or more. However, the impact of emissions in the mixture
3.2. Energy consumption and environmental impact of SFP
production stage on POCP and AP is relatively more apparent, with the
overall impact accounting for about 50 %. At this time, the impact of raw
The energy consumption and environmental impact of various SFPs
material production is relatively weak, with the impact accounting for
in each stage are shown in Figs. 3 to 5.
only about 25 % ~ 30 %.
Fig. 3 shows the energy consumption of different types of SFP in
From the specific differences in environmental impact factors of
different stages. The proportion of energy consumption in the raw ma­
various SFPs, during the construction period, after applying fly ash and
terial production stage is the highest in the construction period and the
rubber particles in the cement-based grouting materials, the environ­
whole life cycle, accounting for 50 % or more. The second is the mixture
mental impact factors of 2 # SFP have significantly decreased, especially
production stage, and the third is the transportation and construction
GWP100 and EP. After applying RAP and warm-mix asphalt, the POCP
stages. At the same time, it can be seen that the difference in energy
and AP of 3 # SFP are significantly reduced. However, in the whole life
consumption is mainly the difference in the raw materials production
cycle, due to the negative impact of RAP on the fatigue resistance of SFP,
stage. It also shows that the energy consumption control in the raw
various environmental impact factors of 3 # SFP are the highest,
material production stage is the key to reducing the energy consumption
furthermore higher than 1 # SFP. At the same time, it can be seen that
in the SFP construction period and the whole life cycle.
although 4 # SFP is applied with a variety of environment-friendly
With the application of RAP, warm-mix asphalt, fly ash, rubber
materials, the emission of 4 # SFP in the whole life cycle has not
particles, the energy consumption of SFP during the construction period
significantly decreased compared with 1 # SFP due to the relatively poor
has been significantly reduced, and the total energy consumption has
fatigue resistance of 4 # SFP. It can be seen that the environmentally
decreased by 30 % or more. Specifically, from 1#SFP to 4#SFP, after
friendly modification based on ensuring the fatigue resistance of SFP can
RAP replaced 35 % of the new aggregate, the energy consumption in the
obtain more significant energy saving and emission reduction benefits.
raw material production stage decreased by 8.9 %. After using warm-
Considering that various materials are used to modify SFP in this
mix asphalt, the energy consumption in the mixture production stage
study, moreover, it can be seen from the above that the raw material
decreased by 20.0 %. After using fly ash and rubber particles to replace
production stage has a significant impact on energy consumption and
15 % and 5 % of cement, the energy consumption in the raw material
environmental impact. Therefore, this study intends to analyze the en­
production stage decreased by 27.8 %. The results show that the energy-
ergy consumption and emission composition of various materials in the
saving effect of replacing new aggregate with RAP is general, while the
raw material production stage of SFP, so as to clarify the specific
replacement of cement brings a significant energy-saving effect.
contribution of various materials to energy consumption and environ­
In addition, it should be noted that in the whole life cycle of
mental impact in the raw material production stage, and provide a more
considering the fatigue resistance of SFP, the distribution law of energy
precise direction for the control of energy consumption and emission in
consumption of various SFPs shows a significant difference. This is
the whole life cycle of SFP, as shown in Fig. 6. It should be noted that the
because the fatigue resistance of various SFPs is significantly different.
emission data of RAP and rubber particles refer to the analysis results of
The fatigue resistance of 3 # SFP is the worst, which also makes it need
energy consumption and emission of rubber particles and RAP in pre­
more maintenance in the design period, and further causes its energy
vious studies [8].
consumption in the whole life cycle to be significantly higher than that
It can be seen from Fig. 6a that it is particularly prominent that in all
of other types of SFPs and even higher than that of unmodified SFPs
kinds of SFP, the energy consumption of cement in the raw material
(1#SFP). The 2 # SFP and 4 # SFP have improved the toughness and
production stage accounts for almost 90 % or more, which is much
stress transfer characteristics of cement-based grouting materials
higher than other raw materials.
through fly ash and rubber particles; therefore, the energy consumption
From the specific impact of raw materials in SFP on various envi­
of SFP in the whole life cycle has been significantly reduced. This also
ronmental impact factors in Fig. 6b to e, it can be found that the emission
shows that when applying environmentally friendly materials or tech­
and environmental impact in the process of cement production account
nologies to modify SFP, it is necessary to ensure not only its environ­
for a high proportion in the raw material production stage. Except for
mental protection characteristics but also the performance of SFP. Only
POCP, the impact of cement production on various environmental
environmentally friendly materials with these two characteristics can
impact factors all accounts for 80 % or more, much higher than other
realize the energy saving of SFP in the whole life cycle.
raw materials. In particular, GWP100, the influence of cement accounts
As can be seen from Figs. 4 and 5, in the construction period of
for 95 % or more. The production of asphalt and aggregate mainly has a
various SFPs, the emission of raw material production stage has a

Fig. 3. Energy consumption of SFP in construction period and whole life cycle.

7
W. Zhao and Q. Yang
Fig. 4. Environmental impact of various SFPs during the construction period.
significant impact on POCP, but the impact accounts for no more than
40 %. It can be seen that the critical method to reduce the environmental
impact of SFP is to scientifically and reasonably replace the amount of
cement in cement-based grouting materials.
3.3. Sensitivity of environmental impact factors of SFP
After obtaining the energy consumption and environmental impact
factors of various SFPs in the whole life cycle, in order to analyze the
sensitivity of energy consumption and environmental impact factors to
various environmentally friendly materials or technology, so as to more
reasonably control various environmental impact factors of SFPs in the
future, the sensitivity coefficient results of various environmental
impact factors calculated according to Equation (2) are shown in
Table 13. It should be noted that the sensitivity coefficients of various
environmental impact factors both have considered the influence of
various sensitive basic parameters on the fatigue resistance of SFP.
It can be seen from Table 13 that, on the whole, all environmental
impact factors are not sensitive to RAP content, and all sensitivity co­
efficient values are 20 % or less, which also corresponds to the conclu­
sion that the energy saving and emission reduction effect of RAP
application mentioned above is general. While POCP and AP are sensi­
tive to the application of warm-mix asphalt, and their sensitivity co­
efficients are up to 40 % and 50 %, respectively. It can be seen that the
application of warm-mix asphalt can significantly reduce the POCP and
AP of SFP in the whole life cycle. All energy consumption and envi­
ronmental impact factors are susceptible to cement replacement, espe­
cially energy consumption, GWP100, and EP. The sensitivity coefficients
of these three energy consumption and environmental impact indicators
to cement replacement are all 80 % or above. The sensitivity of various
environmental impact factors to the fatigue resistance of SFP is 100 %. In
8
Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945
a comprehensive view, the control of various environmental impact
factors of SFP in the whole life cycle mainly lies in the replacement of
cement and the assurance of the fatigue resistance of SFP.
3.4. Normalized environmental impact factor
Fig. 7 shows the normalized results of environmental impact factors
of various SFPs in the construction period and the whole life cycle under
different weighting methods of environmental impact factors. When the
number in the bracket is 0.25, it indicates that the weight of each
environmental impact factor is evenly distributed. When it is 0.7, it in­
dicates that the weight of the environmental impact factor before the
bracket is mainly distributed.
It can be seen from Fig. 7a that under the condition of taking the
environmental impact factor of 1 # SFP as the benchmark. During the
construction period of SFP, with the application of RAP, warm-mix
asphalt, fly ash, and rubber particles in SFP, the final decrease of
normalized environmental impact factor reached 30 %, which shows
that the construction effect of environmentally friendly pavement is
significantly improving. The difference between the normalized envi­
ronmental impact factors of 2 # SFP and 3 # SFP indicates that the
replacement of cement in the cement-based grouting material can obtain
a more significant environmental gain effect. From the comparison of
the normalized environmental impact factor results of 2 # SFP and 4 #
SFP, it can also be seen that although 4 # SFP has two more environ­
mentally friendly materials, RAP and warm-mix asphalt, compared with
2 # SFP, the gain effect of 4 # SFP’s environmental impact factor is not
more significant.
After considering the fatigue resistance of SFP in the whole life cycle,
the normalized environmental impact factor of 3 # SFP is significantly
higher than that of other types of SFP. At the same time, affected by the
W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

Fig. 5. Environmental impact of various SFPs during the whole life cycle.

difference in maintenance times caused by the difference in fatigue resistance of SFPs.

resistance of SFP, the environmental gain effect of 2 # SFP becomes After considering the fatigue resistance of SFPs (Fig. 9), it can be seen
more apparent, and the magnitude relationship of normalized environ­ that the difference in comprehensive performance among various SFPs is
mental impact factors of 2 # SFP and 4 # SFP also changes. It can be seen further amplified in the whole life cycle, and various SFPs show
that in the whole life cycle of SFP, the environmental gain effect brought completely different comprehensive performances. The comprehensive
by the application of RAP is poor. On the contrary, the utilization of RAP performance of various SFPs, from good to bad, is specifically shown as:
will reduce the fatigue resistance of SFP, thus causing a more serious 2 # SFP, 4 # SFP, 1 # SFP, and 3 # SFP. The comprehensive performance
environmental impact in the design period of SFP. of 3 # SFP is significantly weaker than other SFPs. The comprehensive
performance of 2 # SFP and 4 # SFP are similar, and each has advan­
tages and disadvantages. 2 # SFP has better crack resistance and lower
3.5. Multi-index performance analysis of SFP
raw material cost, 4 # SFP has lower energy consumption. It can be seen
that after adding fly ash and rubber particles treated with silane
For the construction and operation of SFP, in addition to its energy
coupling agent aqueous solution into cement-based grouting materials,
consumption and environmental impact, it is also necessary to consider
SFP has significantly better comprehensive performance.
its performance, cost, and other practical factors. Finally, the multi-
index performance evaluation results of the SFP’s cost, energy con­
4. Conclusion
sumption, environmental impact, and performance during the con­
struction period and the whole life cycle are shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9,
In this study, based on the two-phase material system of SFP, RAP,
respectively. The smaller the polygon coverage area in the radar chart,
warm-mix asphalt, fly ash, and rubber particles were used to modify the
the better the comprehensive performance of the SFP. It should be noted
asphalt concrete matrix skeleton and cement-based grouting materials.
that the construction and maintenance periods are relatively indepen­
At the same time, the LCA of the modified SFP, including the con­
dent, so no consideration is paid to the fatigue resistance of SFP during
struction period and the maintenance period, has been carried out. The
the construction period.
results show that the modified SFP has significant energy saving and
It can be seen from Fig. 8 that during the construction period, with
emission reduction benefits. Moreover, the applicability of different
the continuous modification of 1 # SFP to 4 # SFP, the comprehensive
environmentally friendly materials and technologies in SFP and the
performance of SFP has been continuously improved, from excellent to
sensitivity of different environmental impact factors to these materials
poor, specifically 4 # SFP, 2 # SFP = 3 # SFP, and 1 # SFP. The only
and technologies are further clarified, so that the design of energy-
variable is that its crack resistance is not gradually improved with the
saving and emission reduction SFP can be scientifically and accurately
modification of SFP. On the contrary, with the application of RAP, its
guided.
crack resistance decreased. At the same time, it can also be seen that the
In general, with the application of fly ash and rubber particles treated
comprehensive performance difference between various SFPs is not
with a silane coupling agent in cement-based grouting materials, the
apparent during the construction period without considering the fatigue

9
W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

Fig. 6. Proportion of energy consumption and environmental impact of various raw materials.

Table 13
Sensitivity coefficient of environmental impact factors of SFP.
Sensitive basic parameters Rap Drop value of mixing temperature Amount of cement replaced (fly ash Fatigue resistance
content (warm-mix asphalt) + rubber particles) of SFP

Energy consumption and Energy 15.10 % 15.30 % 84.60 % 100.00 %

environmental impact factors consumption
GWP100 4.50 % 8.80 % 108.60 % 100.00 %
EP 5.50 % 4.50 % 132.10 % 100.00 %
POCP 17.40 % 40.60 % 32.10 % 100.00 %
AP 6.20 % 55.80 % 60.70 % 100.00 %

energy consumption and comprehensive environmental impact of SFP in environment. On the contrary, the application of RAP will cause the
the whole life cycle can be reduced by 25 % and 20 %, respectively. performance of SFP to drop significantly, which will further aggravate
However, the application of RAP has no pronounced gain effect on the the energy consumption and environmental impact of SFP. The energy

10
W. Zhao and Q. Yang Construction and Building Materials 364 (2023) 129945

Fig. 7. Normalized environmental impact factors.

Fig. 8. Comprehensive performance of various SFPs during construction period.

Fig. 9. Comprehensive performance of various SFPs during the whole life cycle.

11
W. Zhao and Q. Yang
consumption in the raw material production stage accounts for 80 % or
more in the construction period, and the energy consumption and
emission of cement in the raw material production stage account for 85
% or more. The key to the construction of energy-saving and emission
reduction type SFP is to replace the cement and ensure the good pave­
ment performance and fatigue resistance of SFP. It is suggested to adopt
this method in the future construction of environment-friendly SFP.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Weitian Zhao: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Data
curation, Software, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing – original
draft. Qun Yang: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Resources,
Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
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.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (51778482).
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