Technologies and Principles of Hot Recycling and Investigation of Preheated Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement Batching Process in an Asphalt Mixing Plant

More and more recycled asphalt mixtures with high reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) content are used in road pavement. Having determined and evaluated RAP composition (aged bitumen content and aggregate gradation) and properties, a suitable recycling agent and virgin materials are selected in the design process. The gradation of hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixture that is recycled in an asphalt mixing plant (AMP) shall correspond to its optimal gradation set out in its job-mix formula (JMF). When RAP is recycled in an AMP, inevitable systematic and random errors of performed technological operations and inhomogeneity of virgin materials and RAP have a significant influence. These factors influence the variation of components quantities of recycled hot mix asphalt (RHMA) mixture and deviations from JMF. In this study, the principles of asphalt pavement hot recycling are systematized, which allows analysis of the factors of components’ interaction influencing the results of the recycling process. The paper also presents and analyses asphalt recycling technologies in AMP and their comparative analysis. During the season of asphalt mixture production in 2014, statistical parameters were calculated according to the data obtained from one of the companies, which collected and systematized RAP batch masses, when before batching it was pre-dried and pre-heated in an additional dryer. These parameters of batch mass and RAP content in RHMA position and variation were used when evaluating the accuracy and precision of the recycling process in AMP. The obtained data showed that when RHMA mixtures are produced in a modern batch-type AMP, RAP is batched accurately, but not precisely enough.