Open Access

ARTICLE

High-Temperature Deformation and Low-Temperature Fracture Behavior of Steel Slag Rubber Asphalt Mixture Surface Layer

by Zhiqiang Shu¹, Jianmin Wu^1,*, Shi Chen², Shan Yi², Shaoqing Li¹

1 Key Laboratory of Special Area Highway Engineering of Ministry of Education, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710064, China
2 China State Railway Investment Construction Group Co., Ltd., Beijing, 102600, China

* Corresponding Author: Jianmin Wu. Email:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2022, 10(2), 453-467. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2022.016828

Received 30 March 2021; Accepted 25 May 2021; Issue published 30 August 2021

Abstract

Steel slag is regarded as one of the most widespread solid by-products of steel smelting with little commercial value. It can play a vital role in the construction industry especially in the field of transportation infrastructure construction. However, there are few evaluation systems established on the high-temperature deformation and low-temperature fracture behavior of steel slag rubber asphalt mixture (SSRAM). This study explores the performance of SSRAM by uniaxial penetration test, Semi-Circular Bending (SCB) test and evaluates test data through regression analysis. The uniaxial penetration test results shows that the failure deformation of SSRAM increases with the increase of steel slag content. According to the minimum allowable permanent deformation (R_TS-min), the deformation of SSRAM should be controlled within 3 mm. Meanwhile, the cracking index of the SSRAM surface layer calculated at low temperature can meet the design requirements. The SCB test results show that the stress peak degradation rate (specimens with 10 mm notch are compared with 0 mm) of SSRAM with 40% steel slag content is 20.04%. That means proper steel slag content makes the stress peak degradation rate of SSRAM reaches the lowest value. The calculation results of fracture energy density (J_1C) show that the steel slag additive reduced the fracture energy density of SSRAM. However, it is still proved that SSRAM with 40% steel slag has the best low-temperature fracture performance based on critical fracture toughness (K_1C) and fracture stress peak. Furthermore, the crack propagation velocity parametric equation of SSRAM is proposed through fracture mechanics theory and the increase of velocity is exponential. Considering the high-temperature deformation resistance and low-temperature fracture property, the SSRAM surface layer with 40% steel slag content showed a batter application potential.

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