Use of Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer Principles to Predict Virgin Aggregate Temperature in a Hot-Mix Asphalt Drum Plant
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 5
Abstract
Virgin aggregate is heated and dried in a drum dryer and uses this heated mass to heat and dry reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and/or recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) materials in a drum mixer before blending with virgin asphalt binder. However, often the virgin aggregate temperature inside the dryer is unknown since many dryers do not have a temperature-measuring unit but the mixer has. Up to this end, thermodynamics and heat transfer principles are applied to predict virgin aggregate temperatures necessary to dry and heat RAP/RAS with varying moisture content and for various hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mix proportions. Among the many results, it is found that for a HMA mix consisting of 50% virgin aggregate with 3% moisture content and 50% RAP with 5% moisture content, the temperature required to raise the virgin aggregate temperature is 608°C to dry and heat virgin aggregate and RAP. For verification purposes, the virgin aggregate temperature is recorded at a drum plant facility, and thermodynamics and heat transfer principles are used to predict the virgin aggregate temperatures. It has been observed that for the HMA mix, the temperature predicted for larger-size virgin aggregate shows good agreement with the recorded value.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) under a special funded project. The authors are thankful to Dr. Imad Al-Qadi, director of Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT); Daniel Gallagher from Gallagher Asphalt; and Robert Flemming Jr. from IDOT’s District 4 materials lab. The authors appreciate all the support received from the Technical Review Panel of this project.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 5 • May 2017
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 6, 2016
Accepted: Sep 23, 2016
Published online: Nov 28, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 28, 2017
Published in print: May 1, 2017
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