Simple and Rapid Tests for Assessing Quality and Consistency of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) for Recycled Asphalt Mixture Applications

As the asphalt pavement industry advances toward the use of higher reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) contents in asphalt mixtures, it becomes increasingly important to accurately assess the quality and variability of RAP to ensure consistent pavement performance.

Final Report for NCHRP IDEA Project 245: Simple and Rapid Tests for Assessing Quality and Consistency of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) for Recycled Asphalt Mixture Applications documents a project that investigated innovative methods for determining the performance grade (PG) of RAP binders and assessing RAP stockpile variability—without performing solvent extraction and recovery. This approach avoids the use of trichloroethylene (TCE) and other chemical solvents that may pose environmental and health hazards.

The project included two experiments: Experiment 1 focused on developing a laboratory testing framework to estimate the PG of asphalt binders in RAP. Experiment 2 was designed to evaluate RAP stockpile variability using the selected performance-based tests and to determine its impact on mixture performance through three sub-experiments.