Nonlinear elastic behavior of bitumen emulsion-stabilized materials with C&D waste aggregates

• Nonlinear elastic behavior of BSM-E with CDWA was studied.
• Dynamic triaxial tests were conducted by treating BSM-E as granular materials.
• Resilient and creep models were fitted to the experimental results.
• Mohr–Coulomb envelopes were obtained.
• BSM-E with CDWA exhibited good properties, but needed a higher bitumen content.

In this study, the nonlinear elastic behavior of bitumen-stabilized materials with emulsion (BSM-E)1 with recycled aggregates from construction and demolition (C&D)2 waste was analyzed using dynamic triaxial tests. Different prediction models were fitted to the experimental resilient modulus, the Mohr–Coulomb envelopes were obtained, and the Huurman’s model was fitted to the experimental creep data to provide the necessary parameters for eventual numerical simulations. The results show that mixtures with C&D aggregates are more flexible, have better resistance to permanent deformation, and similar failure stress compared with mixtures with natural aggregates. However, they needed a higher water and bitumen content.