Use of Waste Polythene in Bituminous Concrete Mixes for Highways

Abstract

Abstract: Bituminous Concrete (BC) normally used in construction projects like road surfacing, airports ,parking lots etc is a composite material . It consists of asphalt or bitumen (used as a binder) and mineral aggregate which are mixed together & laid down in layers then compacted. In these days the large increment in high traffic intensity in terms of commercial vehicles, and the compelling variation in daily and seasonal temperature put us in a demanding situation to think of some alternatives for the improvisation of the pavement characteristics and quality by applying some necessary modifications which shall satisfy both the strength as well as economical aspects .Also considering the environmental approach, due to excessive use of polythene in day to day life the pollution to the environment is increased significantly . Since the polythene is non-biodegradable the need of the current hour is to use the waste polythene in some beneficial purposes .This paperpresents a research conducted to analyse the behavior of BC mix modified with waste polythene. Various percentages of polythene are used for preparation of mixes with a selected aggregate grading as given in the IRC Code. By preparing Marshall samples of the concrete mix the role of polythene in bituminous is studied for various engineering properties BC mixtures with and without polymer. Marshall properties such as stability, flow value, unit weight, air voids are used to determine optimum polythene content for the given grade of bitumen (80/100).