Project Summary

The main research plan is to study new materials that will make some positive changes in the durability and longevity of the life of transportation infrastructure, e.g., new asphalt mixtures with Crumb Rubber Modifier (CRM). CRM is recycled rubber produced from waste scrap tires, and when it is incorporated into paving asphalt mixtures, CRM provides many positive improvements in deformation resistance, fatigue resistance and noise reduction encouraged by successful laboratory study results, CRM became one of the popular materials to modify the properties of conventional asphalt paving materials for pavement longevity, e.g., No-agitation Tire Rubber Modified Bitumen (TR-MB). Since there are 1 billion tires stockpiled and 300 million annual increments of tires generated per year in the United States, CRM also could be the potential solution for the solid waste problem. TR-MB is quite a new technology leading to bituminous binders, such as polymer-modified bitumen, in terms of both rheology and required efforts during paving operations. Their manufacturing is strongly dependent on the selected processing variables as well as on the selected materials. This research will include studying the influence of processing conditions on the modification process, storage stability and overall properties of the final bitumen-tire rubber blends.