Abstract
The construction of forest roads is one of the priority issues of the forest industry. The underdeveloped forest road network does not allow the use of forest resources, which are situated too far from the civil roads because of lower profitability. Expanding the forest road infrastructure will allow to increase mobility as well as profitability of resource extraction. Forest roads are expensive. This is due to the high cost of road construction materials and long distance of their delivery. One of the latest ways of cost reduction of road construction materials is the use of industrial wastes. A study was carried out in order to obtain a pavement layer with high physical and mechanical properties and a relatively low cost from industrial wastes for the problem solving. Household high-pressure polyethylene is used as a binder in the mixture, and ash from incineration of sewage sludge is used as filler. A coagulation-condensation structure is formed due to the use of plastic in the mixture; herewith the material is characterized by high strength and frost resistance. The study has a scientific novelty as the issues of polyethylene adhesion with various fillers are poorly known. Recycled polymers (crushed polyethylene, fraction 1.5–2.5 mm) were used as a structure-forming component. Ash from the sewage sludge incineration obtained at the SUE «Vodokanal of St. Petersburg» was used as the filler material. According to the test results, a material with the following parameters was obtained: the compression resistance of 170.63–552.08 MPa, the elastic modulus of 322–1022 MPa, water absorption within 1 %; that allows using the material in the forest road construction. This material can be used as an application for reinforcing the pavement layer in the forest road construction on weak soils. The use of the obtained material in forest road construction will expand the forest road infrastructure by cost reduction. The studies of the Department of Industrial Transport of the Saint-Petersburg State Forest Technical University show that the high physical and mechanical parameters will increase the service life of forest roads and hence the time between overhauls. These aspects have a positive effect on the profitability of the forest road construction.For citation: Minaev А.N., Zubova О.V., Kulik D.М., Siletskiy V.V., Lugovov V.I. Application of Ash-Polymer Mixtures in the Construction of Forest Roads. Lesnoy Zhurnal [Russian Forestry Journal], 2020, no. 3, pp. 106–116. DOI: 10.37482/0536-1036-2020-3-106-116
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