Effects of recycled asphalt pavements on the fatigue life of asphalt under different strain levels and loading frequencies

•This study evaluated the effect of recycled asphalt pavements (RAP) on asphalt mixtures and binders fatigue life.•Fatigue life is estimated under different strain levels and loading frequencies.•Major concentration on how the fatigue life changes with the addition of RAP.•A relationship between the fatigue lives of asphalt mixture and binder is developed.

Fatigue lives of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) and binder have been studied separately for a long time. However, fatigue lives of HMA containing Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) and the binder extracted from the same HMA containing RAP have not been studied yet. This study examines the effects of RAP, loading frequency and strain level on the fatigue lives of asphalt mixtures and binders. In addition, the relationship between the fatigue lives of asphalt mixture and binder is determined. Beam fatigue tests were conducted to determine the fatigue behaviors of two asphalt mixtures: one with 35% RAP and the other without RAP. To evaluate binder’s fatigue behavior, binders were extracted and recovered from these two mixtures. Then, fatigue lives of these two binders were determined using time sweep and Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) tests. Results show that presence of RAP in mixture causes a decrease in the mixture’s fatigue life, whereas it causes an increase in the fatigue life of binder. As expected, an increase in loading frequency results in an increase in the fatigue lives of asphalt mixture as well as binder. In addition, increase in strain level causes a decrease in the fatigue lives of both mixtures and binders. Fatigue lives of binders from time sweep and LAS tests show a good correlation with the mixture’s fatigue life by the beam fatigue test.