Evaluation of the Effect of Glass Granule Size on Water Damage Performance of Asphalt Mixtures

Abstract

Economic growth and the increase in the population trigger consumption and increase the amount of waste produced. One of the resulting wastes is glass and using of these large amount of glass waste materials by environmental methods is seen as an important issue. On the other hand, there are difficulties due to the decrease of natural resources in the supply of aggregates used in asphalt pavements. In this study, the use of waste glass instead of natural aggregates in asphalt pavements was investigated in terms of water damage. In addition to base bitumen, hydrated lime modified and SBS modified bitumen were used in experimental studies. The waste glass was added in two different sizes (as filler materials and 2 mm sized fine aggregate) and three addition ratios (20%, 30% and 40%) instead of basalt aggregates. The asphalt mix samples produced in optimum bitumen contents were evaluated for water damage by AASHTO T 283 method. Asphalt mixture with 20% glass filler showed the highest water damage resistance. Among the options where the glass aggregate size was chosen as 2 mm, the highest water damage resistance was realized at addition rate of 30%. Both hydrated lime and SBS polymer were effective in improving water damage resistance. However, the highest tensile strength ratio was obtained with hydrated lime. The optimum bitumen contents of the mixtures with glass aggregates produced with both base and modified bitumen were decreased compared to that produced entirely with basalt aggregate. According to the test results, it is understood that the filler materials produced from waste glasses can be used instead of natural aggregate filler.