Crumb rubber modified asphalt: Conventional and Superpave Techniques

This research aims to investigate the effect of the Crumb Rubber Modification (CRM) on the temperature susceptibility of the asphalt binders using conventional and Superpave techniques; furthermore, it aims to compare conventional temperature susceptibility indexes and the Superpave Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) parameters. Three asphalt binder grades were investigated: 60/70, 80/100 from the same New Zealand source; and 80/100 was imported. The three binder sources were experimented on in the laboratory under three different conditions: unaged binder, short-term and long-term ageing. The results of this research clearly showed that the addition of the CRM significantly influenced the viscosity of the asphalt binder. The results indicated different ranking for the temperature susceptibility when using the conventional Viscosity-Temperature Susceptibility (VTS) and other conventional Penetration Index (PI) and Penetration-Viscosity Number (PVN) for the different bitumen sources.On the other hand, the BBR's parameters were able to show how each binder differs in performance for short and long term ageing.