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Cold in-place recycling (CIR) is one of the most effective methods to rehabilitate asphalt pavements. In fact, most CIR roads have performed well at low cost in Iowa since the first CIR road was constructed in 1986. However, some CIR roads have reached failures earlier than their expected design lives because there is no design standard for designing CIR roads with a limited amount of past performance information. Some of the most prominent problems seemed to have come from selecting CIR in areas where there are poor subgrades. Therefore, it is critical to collect CIR performance data along with falling weight deflectometer (FWD) data in order to develop performance models. The main purpose of this paper is to document that effort. The performance models were developed on the basis of historical data collected from CIR roads in Iowa. First, an inventory of CIR roads was created which includes construction information, subgrade and base characteristics, and traffic levels. In consideration of pavement age, level of traffic, and subgrade condition, 26 test sections were selected from the inventory of CIR roads and pavement surface distress surveys were conducted on these roads using an automated image collection system. Distress data were then compiled to compute pavement condition index (PCI) for each test section. FWD data were collected from each test section to determine its relative soil support condition. Finally, to determine their long-term performance, the PCI values were plotted against the pavement age for each group of pavements categorized by their soil support conditions and traffic levels. Overall, it can be concluded that the CIR roads in Iowa, all under traffic level of annual average daily traffic of 2,000, have performed very well and predicted to last up to 25 years before reaching the poor condition (PCI=40) when the pavements are to be rehabilitated. The CIR roads with a good subgrade support, however, are predicted to last up to 35 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a limited maintenance budget and unprecedented construction cost increases, many owner/agencies in the United States are beginning to rehabilitate existing distressed pavements. Cold in-place recycling (CIR) provides an economical rehabilitation method and has been widely used in the past 20 years. However, recycled roads have experienced inconsistent performance and that has hindered the application of CIR. The objective of this paper is to study the cause and effect relationships between factors, such as traffic loading, support condition, and aged engineering properties of the CIR materials, and pavement performance. Twenty-four roads in Iowa were examined through field and lab tests. Statistical analyzes show that, within the range of data in this study, better performance was observed on CIR roads with lower CIR modulus value and/or higher air voids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of the validation effort to evaluate the consistency of a new cold in-place recycling using foamed asphalt (CIR–foam) mix design process for the Iowa Department of Transportation, the dynamic modulus and repeated load tests were conducted to evaluate the performance characteristics of CIR–foam mixtures over a wide range of loading and temperature conditions. The main objective of this research is to study the impacts of the foamed asphalt contents and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) material characteristics on dynamic modulus and flow number. Dynamic modulus and repeated load tests were conducted on CIR–foam mixtures with RAP materials collected from seven different CIR project sites located throughout Iowa. Dynamic modulus values of the RAP materials varied depending on the sources and foamed asphalt contents. Coarse RAP materials with a small amount of residual asphalt content exhibited a higher modulus value at 4.4°C but exhibited a lower dynamic modulus value at 37.8°C than fine RAP materials with a large amount of residual asphalt content. Flow numbers were varied significantly depending on their RAP sources and foamed asphalt contents. Fine RAP materials with a hard residual asphalt binder exhibited a higher flow number than coarse RAP materials with a soft residual binder. The relative rankings of RAP materials in terms of the flow number did not change when the foamed asphalt was increased from 1.0 to 3.0%, which supports the repeated load test being consistent in evaluating a rutting potential of RAP materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to validate a new mix design procedure for cold in-place recycling using foamed asphalt (CIR-foam) developed for the Iowa Department of Transportation. First, reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials were collected from seven different CIR construction sites located across the state of Iowa. To determine the consistency of a new CIR-foam mix design procedure, the mix design was performed seven times using these RAP materials. The test specimens were prepared using gyratory compactor rather than Marshall hammer because it produced more consistent mixtures for various foamed asphalt contents and curing conditions. The indirect tensile strength test was performed on the vacuum-saturated specimens prepared using each of seven RAP material sources for five different foamed asphalt contents (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0%), given a fixed moisture content of 4.0%. As the foamed asphalt content increased from 1.0 to 3.0% at 0.5% increments, air voids in the CIR-foam mixtures decreased gradually. The indirect tensile strength of CIR-foam specimens cured for two days at 60°C was significantly higher than that of CIR-foam specimens cured for three days at 40°C. Based on the new mix design procedure, the optimum foamed asphalt contents were consistently found at values between 1.5 and 2.5% for all seven different RAP materials. The stiffer residual asphalt required more foamed asphalt, whereas the higher residual asphalt content did not require a smaller amount of foamed asphalt. The raveling test result was very sensitive to the curing time and the foamed asphalt content, such that RAP materials with a large amount of stiff residual asphalt would exhibit more potential for raveling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]