Experimental study on the behaviour of modified bituminous concrete mix developed using plastic waste and scrapped rubber tyre

Abstract

Increase in road traffic combined with insufficient maintenance due to a lack of funds causes the roads to deteriorate rapidly. Now - a-days it has been observed that performance  of pavement is reduced due to the increase in axel load and traffic intensity which causes cracks, pot holes and rutting. Because of its viscoelastic nature, the seasonal change in temperature and charging process has a significant effect on bitumen behaviour. Many steps can be implemented to lighten this cycle, such as improved using better quality of materials and design process of pavement. The bitumen grade produced in India without admixtures cannot cope with extreme weather conditions across our country; there is a need to reinforce bitumen mixes with appropriate admixtures. Bitumen admixtures are mostly of a chemical nature that will induce health effects for the workers paving the surface with added bitumen admixture. In flexible pavement construction, the use of waste materials such as plastic and rubber tyres is increasingly encouraged and find a method of safe disposal of waste of such product to reduce the environmental impact. Waste plastic like polythene bags, bottles and crumb rubber were combined in an environmentally friendly way with the bitumen grade 80/100 in this study. In order to simulate the field conditions Marshall Stability test was carried out on the samples developed by partially replacing bitumen  with waste plastic (3%, 5%, 7%, 9% and 11%) and crumb rubber (4%, 8%, 12%, 16%,20%). It was concluded that the waste plastic and Crumb rubber as modified binder showed significant improvement in the Marshall stability, flow, volumetric properties and green pavement can be constructed in economical way.