Investigating the influence of asphalt rubber and rubberized asphalt on the dynamic response of pavements

In Europe, noise constitutes a severe threat to the citizens’ health, and among the different noise sources, road noise is the most impactful. The dominant component of road noise is tire-road noise (TRN), which depends on the tire and pavement’s mechanical properties. One of the most important properties is the dynamic stiffness, DS, of the pavement, but a complete understanding of how this parameter affects the TRN has not yet been achieved. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the importance of the introduction of crumb rubber, CR, on the dynamic response of bituminous mixtures and, particularly, on the DS. The authors measured the DS of road surfaces and pavement samples following the Test Automation Device, TAD-hammer, according to a method already set up and tuned in a previous study. Then, the DS results were subsequently used to calibrate a model that allowed predicting the DS, based on gradation, CR, and air voids.