Evaluating hot asphalt mixtures of poor quality aggregate with sulphur extended asphalt

Abstract

The environment is greatly affected by the construction of massive national infrastructure projects not only in Egypt, but also all over the world as: highways network projects which consumed several good quality quarries stripping the eligibility of next generations, also natural gas refining and petrochemical projects which expel tens of thousands of tons of by-product materials like sulphur, beside the increasing consumption of oil derivative and fuel responsible for the global warming. All of that makes it promising to use poor quality aggregate a long side with partially substituted bitumen by sulphur in hot asphalt mixtures. In this work, a conventional hot asphalt mixtures were made of poor quality aggregate and pure bitumen at 160 °C mixing temperature, and several hot asphalt mixtures were made of poor quality aggregate and commercial sulphur replacing (10, 20, 30, and 40) per cent by weight of bitumen at 140 °C mixing temperature. Then, many parameters of mechanical properties were measured including Marshall stability, flow, air voids, and Marshall stiffness, beside other specialized tests were conducted as: rutting susceptibility, indirect tensile strength, and loss of stability. Promising conclusions were achieved approving that sulphur could replace 30% by weight of bitumen guaranteeing a satisfactory hot asphalt mixture of poor quality aggregate under the same conventional condition of mixing, handling and paving procedures saving 20 °C during mixing process.