Publication Detail
Physical, Thermo-Rheological, and Aging Performance of Untreated and KH-151-Treated Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt Incorporating Waste Transmission Oil and Steel Slag
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UCD-ITS-RP-26-42 Journal Article UC Pavement Research Center |
Suggested Citation:
Khan, Saad, Hui Li, Hengji Zhang, Haopeng Zhang, Yuzhao Han, Mthokozisi Hillary Ncube, John T. Harvey (2026)
Physical, Thermo-Rheological, and Aging Performance of Untreated and KH-151-Treated Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt Incorporating Waste Transmission Oil and Steel Slag
. Construction and Building Materials 540 (147718)Crumb rubber (CR) from used tires is widely employed to modify asphalt, but it faces challenges regarding compatibility, workability, and performance after aging. This study analyzes the effects of KH-151-treated CR on CR-modified asphalt (CRMA) and the effects of incorporating varying contents of waste transmission oil into untreated CRMA and steel slag into KH-151-treated CRMA on the physical properties of unaged binders and the thermo-rheological behavior of unaged, short-term aged, and long-term aged binders. The prepared binders were evaluated through traditional binder tests, fluorescence microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, multiple stress creep recovery, linear amplitude sweep, and low-temperature rheological tests. Incorporating WTO into untreated CRMA increased penetration by 10.5–21.2% and ductility by 17.7–30.2%, while reducing viscosity by 12.7–30.4% and softening point by 13.8–22.2%, which improved workability and low-temperature relaxation but reduced rutting resistance and fatigue life at lower strain, and yielded the highest fatigue life at higher strain, even after aging. KH-151-treated CR in CRMA increased penetration and ductility by 24.8% and 81.2%, respectively, and reduced viscosity and the softening-point difference by 55.0% and 86.7%, respectively, thereby improving workability, low-temperature flexibility, and storage stability, while also retarding the rate of increase of carbonyl and sulfoxide indices with aging, enhancing fatigue performance at higher strain, and maintaining low-temperature stresses lower than those in untreated CRMA. Incorporating 5–10% steel slag into KH-151-treated CRMA increased the softening point by 2.3–4.7% and viscosity by 7.8–26.2%, enhancing stiffness and rutting resistance, while causing only slight reductions in penetration by 0.98–2.14% and ductility by 3.4–5.7%, together with a slight reduction in cracking resistance at low temperature. The findings indicate that moderate WTO in untreated CRMA and steel slag in KH-151-treated CRMA can help to achieve desirable workability, rutting, fatigue, and low-temperature cracking performance in different pavement applications.
Key words:
WTO-modified CRMA, KH-151-treated CRMA, steel slag, thermo-rheological behavior, aging performance