Effect of Parameters of Rubber Powder and Fiber on Road Performance of Low Noise Micro-Surfacing

Abstract

Micro-surfacing is often regarded as an effective preventive maintenance method of pavement, as it has several advantages; as a result, it is widely used in highway maintenance worldwide. For a systematic study of the effect of rubber powder and fiber on the road performance and noise reduction of micro-surfacing, rubber powder and fiber were added separately to micro-surfacing mixture, to study the effect of rubber powder content and fineness, as well as fiber content and length, on the mixing time, cohesion, wear resistance, rutting resistance, and crack resistance of the micro-surfacing mixture. The results show that different properties of rubber powder and fiber have different effects on the mixture properties; the addition of 3% of 40 mesh rubber powder and 0.2% of 6 mm polypropylene monofilament fiber is recommended in the preparation of micro-surfacing. Furthermore, wet wheel wear noise tests and load wear noise tests were conducted to verify the noise reduction and validate the noise reduction efficacy. The results indicate that rubber powder–fiber micro-surfacing demonstrates superior noise reduction, compared with ordinary conventional pavements. This study serves as a valuable reference for enhancing micro-surfacing performance and facilitating the further promotion of micro-surfacing.