Durability evaluation of reclaimed asphalt pavement, ground glass and carbide lime blends based on unconfined compression tests

TLDR: In this article, the use of the mixture of three residues, evaluating the feasibility of using these as a pavement layer, has been studied, and a generalized approach to replace the laborious durability test is proposed, and limitations are observed.

Abstract: The use of domestic, industrial and construction waste has been gaining considerable space in recent decades in view of the social and environmental concern in preserving and reusing natural resources. Thus, this article has the premise of studying the use of the mixture of three residues, evaluating the feasibility of using these as a pavement layer. The first residue is the reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) coming from the milling of the asphalt coating of a pavement. The second material used is carbide lime (CL), a residue from the production of acetylene gas that will act as a cementing agent. To react with the carbide lime, a third material was also used: the flat ground glass, since it has a high content of SiO2 in its composition. Thus, it is possible that pozzolanic reactions occur with calcium ions in lime, forming cementing compounds and acquiring properties of strength, durability and rigidity. It was evaluated the variation of the carbide lime (3 and 7%), the dry unit weight (19 and 20 kN/m3) and the ground glass (GG) content passing through the #200 sieve (10, 15 and 25%) in front of the unconfined compression, split tensile, durability and rigidity tests. The results show that the effect of each of the selected variables is considered satisfactory to obtain significant results for each of the tests. The porosity/binder index [η/Biv0.28] proved to be adequate for predicting the mechanical behavior of the mixtures, and it was even possible to make correlations between test results. Furthermore, a generalized approach to replace the laborious durability test is proposed, and limitations are observed.