Fracture Toughness Evaluation of Asphalt Mixtures Containing Rubber Powder and Steel Slag at Low Temperature

Abstract

Pavements are part of the most important structure of the roads and a huge amount of money is spent on their repair and improvement every year. If special measures are used in the mixing plan of these procedures, most of which are made of asphalt mixtures, millions of dollars can be saved annually. On the other hand, in recent years, in addition to paying attention to increasing the life of asphalt mixtures, special attention has been paid to the use of recycled materials and materials to improve the life of asphalt pavements, because this work has environmental advantages in addition to economic benefits. Therefore, in this research, the cracking resistance of asphalt mixtures containing two recycled materials, steel slag and rubber powder has been investigated. Cracking resistance has been investigated using fracture toughness in two loading modes, one and two pure, at two low temperatures of -12 and -24. The results of this research showed that the use of steel slag (50 and 100 percent) and rubber powder (5 and 10 percent) can be investigated and loaded in both cases to improve the fracture toughness of asphalt mixtures. Meanwhile, the combination of both modifiers in the percentage of 5% of rubber powder and 50% of steel slag provides the most optimal amount possible.