Assessing the impact of the incorporation of aramid and polyolefin to hot and warm asphaltic mixture using dry and wet process: A Review

Abstract

The utilisation of polymer has become a prominent trend in the civil engineering industry, one of them is in the production of asphalt for pavement structure. There have been currently a vast range of polymer product variation used in the asphalt production, among which are polyolefin (polyethylene, polypropylene, PET) and aramid. This paper attempts to assess the benefit of the incorporation of the polymer to produce both hot and warm mix asphalt, both by the wet process to develop a modified bitumen, also dry process to form a fibre reinforced mixture. The results indicate that the addition of up to 10% of polyolefin increase the softening point and dynamic stiffness of the bitumen as well as decrease the penetration grade of bitumen by means of wet process. Nevertheless, an extra binding agent is required to prevent the separation between the polymer and bitumen. Furthermore, the inclusion of the polymers using the dry process has been discovered to promote improvements in the mechanical performances of both hot and warm mix asphalt regarding the resistance against rutting, fatigue life, stiffness, tensile and compressive strength, and fracture energy given a wide range of working temperature, as well as reduce binder drain down. These outcomes concluded that the use of polymer as an additive in bituminous mix can combat the failure mechanism in the pavement structures.