INVESTIGATING EFFECTS OF AMINE BASED MODIFIER ON RECYCLED ASPHALT SHINGLES BLENDING

Abstract

A laboratory study was conducted to investigate the effects of Amine based modifier on rheological characteristics of particle filled viscous medium such as asphalt binder in presence of Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS). In this study, virgin asphalt binder (PG 64-22), three different percentages (20, 30 and 40%) of tear-off shingles and modifiers; Rediset, Evotherm and Bio-binder were used. The tear-off shingles acquired from local reroofing company in Greensboro, North Carolina; were finely grinded (85% passing of sieve # 200). The virgin binder and different percentages of RAS were then blended at 180°C using shearing speed of 400 rpm. Following that themixture was blended with 1.5% of Rediset, 0.5% of Evotherm and 5% of bio-binder. The properties of the blended binder were studied using the Rotational Viscometer (RV) equipped with two different spindle types:- One was Smooth Cylindrical spindle (SC4-27D) and the other one was Vane spindle (V 73). The analysis showed that the viscosity was increased with increasing the RAS percentage. Furthermore, the viscosity measured by vane spindle was continuously higher than the value measured by smooth spindle; however the difference between the two measurements reduced as the blending were improved using modifiers. Moreover, temperature found to be the main contributor to reduction of the viscosity in both spindles cases. In addition the coefficient of variation was significantly lower in the case of vane spindle, indicating that the vane spindle could be more appropriate in measuring viscosity of particle filled viscous medium such as RAS asphalt. Based on the experimental result an empirical index called blending index was introduced in this study to measure the blending behavior and status for modified mixtures. As expected it was found that the blending index increases as the temperature and rotational speed increases. In other word, higher temperature and shearing rate could enhance blending resulting in higher blending index. The blending index was further used as a laboratory measure to compare effectiveness of various additives in enhancing blending of RAS modified mixtures. It was shown that among three modifiers used in this study, the bio-binder was more effective to increase the blending index.