Durability Assessment of Asphalt Rubber Mixtures

In this paper, a gap graded Asphalt Rubber Asphalt Concrete (ARAC) was studied to carefully assess durability aspects, such as moisture sensitivity, aging resistance, and abrasion resistance that contribute to establishing an important database of ARAC engineering performance. In particular, moisture sensitivity was investigated through indirect tensile and Cantabro tests on dry and wet conditioned specimens while the aging resistance was assessed in terms of change in the stiffness modulus, fatigue life, and Cantabro particle loss after the laboratory simulated long-term aging of the AR mixture. Finally, Cantabro test results on dry and un-aged samples were employed to evaluate the abrasion resistance of the studied material. Results were compared with those of reference materials tested in the laboratory or found in literature. The study provided evidence of the strong durability of the investigated Asphalt Rubber (AR) mixture.