Title:
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Upgrading rubber aggregates for use in bituminous materials
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This thesis reveals a significant improvement to an approach on developing
novel rubberized bituminous material for use in flexible pavements. The
connections between chemistry, rheology and mechanical properties of
bituminous material are discussed in this thesis. A patent technology holding by
LCMT team has been applied and improved to control the swelling during the
dry process of producing rubberized bituminous material. The Scanning
Electronic Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared spectrum (FT-IR) and
other technology has been adopted to characterize the effects of the modified
patent technology. The experimental results indicated that new chemical
functional groups have been generated by the improved treatment. SEM graphs
of waste rubber particles before and after the treatment demonstrated that the
morphological characteristics of rubber powder are apparently different. Other
respective tests also confirmed the treatment's positive effects. This modified
treatment has been confirmed to be a significant improvement of the stability
and other relevant properties of the rubberized bituminous material, and its
economical & green prospects make it a competitive rubber applying process for
real construction works. On the other hand, new design of the rubberized
bituminous material, in which a specific amount of hydrated lime was applied to
stabilize the rubber content, has been proved to be a successful supplement to
the rubberized bituminous material according to the lab tests. The future plan for
further study of this project on designing and testing has been presented in the
final part of the thesis as well.
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