Effect of Water Submergence on the Characteristics of Bituminous Mixes Using Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement

Now a-days, the cost of asphalt pavement materials have been increasing excessively, which led to find alternative materials which must be cheaper than that of asphalt pavement materials. In addition, more concerns are pointed to reserving natural resources and reducing environmental impacts of using virgin asphalt binders, thus more attention is focused on the use of recycled materials in pavement designs. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of water on the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement materials in bituminous mix and to determine the optimum percentage of reclaimed asphalt pavement materials with virgin pavement materials and optimum days of water submergence according to the Marshall Mix design criteria based on medium traffic condition. To achieve the objectives of this study the basic properties tests were performed on the studied materials and then Marshall Test was conducted on asphalt mixtures with different percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement materials with optimum bitumen content determined for 100% fresh aggregate. The different percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement material in asphalt mixtures are 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%. Marshall Criteria was satisfied up to 20%. Then the specimen prepared with 20% reclaimed asphalt pavement material was submerged in water at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 days. Optimum days of water submergence was 15 days on the basis of Marshall mix design criteria