Studies on Polymer Modified Bitumen with various Fiber Impregnation

Abstract

Transportation sector is showing immense growth in the recent decades, modern vehicles introduced require a more stable platform to run better. In terms of road construction, we are not yet reaching the modernized standards adopted by other countries and usage of modern and innovative road construction materials are yet to be used in transportation infrastructure sector. The available roads are also getting damaged due to improper maintenance of top layer of the road and no bond strength between the bitumen and coarse aggregate. To avoid this kind of cracks and failure of surface bitumen, this is the main binder in the road construction need modification. In this study, an attempt is made to include mixture of glass and sisal fibre to increase the strength parameter of the bitumen. The bitumen used in the study has a penetration grade of 30/40. In the present study, an attempt has been made to study the effects of use of a naturally and locally available fibres namely sisal and glass fibre which are used as stabilizer in Smart Mix Asphalt (SMA) and as an additive in Bituminous Concrete (BC). Binder content has been varied sequentially from 4 to 7% and fibre content is varied from 0 to 10% of total mix. As a part of preliminary study, Sisal fibre has been found to result satisfactory in Marshall properties and hence has been used for mixes in subsequent works. Using Marshall Procedure Optimum Fibre Content (OFC) for both BC and SMA mixes was found to be 10%. Similarly, Optimum Binder Content (OBC) for BC and SMA were found to be 5 and 5.2 % respectively. The testes are done based on IS 1201-1220(1978) and other relevant ASTM standards.