Feasibility study of low density polyethylene modified bituminous mix in DBM layer of flexible pavement

Abstract

An efficient and adequate system of transportation is inevitable for the development of any country. A high traffic intensity in terms of overloaded commercial vehicle, introduction of new axle configuration, significant variations of daily and seasonal temperature of the pavement are significant factors contributing to early development of distress symptoms like ravelling, rutting, cracking, bleeding, shoving and pot holing of bituminous surfacing, which demand a proper strengthening of pavements. The early development of distress in the pavement with the conventional mixes revealed the need of design specification based on performance tests. To overcome such kind of distress, properties of bitumen and bituminous mixes can be improved to meet the requirement of pavement with the incorporation of certain modifiers. The present study evaluates the Low-Density polyethylene (waste milk pouches) modified bituminous mix properties corresponding to the optimum binder content by conducting different performance test. Experimental studies demonstrated that waste milk pouches (6% by weight of the binder) modified bituminous mix gives the best result in terms of stability and durability. Experimental results indicated that using the waste milk pouches in bitumen is not only a cost-effective mix but also a very good solution in terms of improving bitumen pavement mix properties. The present paper aims to highlight the change in properties by addition of modifiers in bitumen and develop a procedure to estimate the reliability of a particular mix design. By considering these aspects, statistically it has been proved that the bituminous mix obtained experimentally, is also reliable to be used in real life scenario.