Study of aluminium dross and ordinary Portland cement modified cold bituminous emulsion mix

Abstract

Due to their low cost, cold bituminous emulsion mixes (CBEMs) are preferred for the construction of low-volume roads in India. However, due to the low strength of CBEMs and overloading, the premature failure of these roads is common. The strength of CBEMs is generally increased by the addition of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and hydrated lime. The use of industrial waste materials is also an alternative to conventional additives for improving the performance of CBEMs. Studies carried out in the past have shown a significant improvement in the strength of CBEMs prepared with the replacement of natural aggregates with industrial waste materials such as fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag. In this study, the proportions of aluminium dross (AD) and OPC were varied from 0 to 3% with increments of 1%. Marshall stability, indirect tensile strength, indirect tensile stiffness modulus and retained stability tests were performed on mixes prepared with different proportions of AD and OPC. The stability and indirect tensile strength values of the mixes containing AD were higher than those of the mixes containing OPC. The retained stability ratio indicated that addition of AD and OPC resulted in a reduction in moisture damage. The optimum content of both OPC and AD was found to be 2%.