Laboratory performance evaluation of waste tire rubber (WTR) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA)-modified asphalt mixtures

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explore the performance and economy of asphalt mixture with waste tire rubber (WTR)/ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) compound-modified asphalt. In this paper, five kinds of WTR/EVA asphalt mixture were selected as research targets, 70# base asphalt mixture and 5% styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) asphalt mixture were compared. Laboratory test results showed that WTR and EVA could significantly improve the performance of the asphalt mixture. The rutting resistance and anti-ageing ability of 15%WTR + 4%EVA asphalt mixture were superior to the 5% SBS asphalt mixture, and the anti-cracking ability and water stability were extremely close between them. Furthermore, the analysis of variance results revealed that WTR and EVA had a significant effect on asphalt mixture performance, the effect of EVA was more obvious than WTR. According to the economy analysis, the application of WTR/EVA-modified asphalt could significantly reduce construction costs, the material cost of 15%WTR + 4%EVA asphalt mixture was about 9.3% lower than 5% SBS asphalt mixture. As summarised above, WTR/EVA compound-modified asphalt mixture was an economical and environmentally pavement construction material due to its superior performance and lower cost, and 15%WTR + 4%EVA was the optimal combination dosage for asphalt mixture.

KEYWORDS:

• Modified asphalt mixture
• waste tire rubber (WTR)
• ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA)
• laboratory performance
• economic cost

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 52208435, 51778224). All authors show gratitude for their financial support.