EFFECT OF BASECOURSE AGGREGATE PROPERTIES ON STRENGTH OF FOAMED BITUMEN STABILIZED MATERIALS

Abstract

Foamed Bitumen Stabilization (FBS) is a treatment for strengthening pavements and improving road performance, either on newly constructed or existing roads. The FBS within pavements is typically used in the basecourse layer, where the basecourse material is mixed with cement, bitumen, and water through a milling operation on site. The performance of the Foamed Bitumen Stabilized basecourse can be highly affected by various parameters such as the cement content, bitumen content, the quality of the operation as well as the basecourse aggregate characteristics. In this research, a collection of existing historical FBS mix design data from New Zealand roads are analyzed. The Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) of the FBS material made of aggregate sourced from two different regions are compared. The results show that the aggregate percentage of fine particles and the plasticity index contributes to the final strength of FBS material. The obtained results are valuable towards optimizing the FBS mix design based on the basecourse aggregate properties.