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Determination of the Friction Coefficients of Icy Pavements Under Different Amounts of Snowfall
Published on: January 6, 2023
Environmental Assessment and Eco-Efficiency of Airport Pavements Incorporating Warm RAP Base Layers
Washington Camatari Junior1, Tales Ribeiro Santos1, Vinicius Storto Martinez Senra1
1Department of Fortification and Construction, Military Institute of Engineering-IME, Praça General Tibúrcio, 80, Urca, Rio de Janeiro 22290-270, Brazil.
Materials (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 13, 2026
Summary
Heated Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) offers superior eco-efficiency for airport pavements. This warm base solution significantly reduces environmental impact per year of service compared to untreated or chemically stabilized RAP.
Area of Science:
- Civil Engineering
- Environmental Science
- Materials Science
Background:
- Recycled materials in infrastructure reduce environmental impact.
- Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in base layers offers benefits but depends on processing and performance.
- Chemical stabilization of RAP is effective but has environmental drawbacks.
Purpose of the Study:
- Evaluate controlled thermal conditioning of RAP as a warm base solution for airport pavements.
- Compare the environmental and structural performance of untreated RAP, heated RAP, and chemically stabilized RAP.
- Assess eco-efficiency based on global warming potential and structural service life.
Main Methods:
- Comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) for production and construction stages (A1-A3, A5).
- Mechanistic-empirical structural performance analyses.
- Evaluation of untreated RAP, heated RAP, and RAP stabilized with emulsion and cement.
Main Results:
- Heated RAP shows intermediate absolute environmental impacts but highest eco-efficiency.
- Warm base (heated RAP) achieved ~71% lower environmental impact per service year than untreated RAP.
- Warm base demonstrated ~90% lower environmental impact per service year than emulsion-stabilized RAP.
Conclusions:
- Performance-based sustainability assessment reveals advantages of solutions with moderate production impacts but enhanced longevity.
- Heated RAP (warm base) presents a more sustainable alternative for airport pavement base layers.
- Findings are specific to the defined production and construction system boundaries.
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