A STUDY OF INCORPORATION OF GROIJND RUBBER TYRE INTO BITUMEN FOR ROAD APPLICATION

Abstract

Attached

Ground Rubber Tyre (GRT) is one of the modifiers used for the modification of bitumen. The main application of bitumen isfor road construction as a binder. There are two advantages if' GRT can be used on a large scale for the modification of this binder. Since GRT is very much cheaper than any other polymer modifier. cost of modification is minimal. On the other hand if this becomes an outlet for waste tyres, it would help to mitigate the environmental impact immensely. Studies with GRT for this purpose have not been reported in Sri Lanka. Although some studies have been carried out in the country using latex on modification of bitumen. none of the Sri Lankan roads has so far been rubberised. Rubberisation of roads is not a new concept and research in this area has been carried out for one and a half centuries. This study is an initial step in investigating the methods of incorporation of CRT into bitumen to improve the desirable properties of bitumen mainly for road applications with the aim of rubberisation of roads in Sri Lanka. Various polymer materials have been triedfor modification of properties of bitumen. It has been established that rubberisation ofroads improves the road performance and also the service life. In this research work. some properties of bitumen modified with GRT at different levels under different mixing conditions were studied to ascertain the optimum level and the best mixing conditions 0.( incorporation of GRT into bitumen to achieve the optimum propertiesfor application in road construction. Out of the 3 characteristics tested. 2 of the vital properties namely softening point and penetration were found to be substantially improved by incorporation of GRT info bitumen. However. strength properties of modified bitumen were found to be affected by GRT due to the failure of ductility and therefore further research has to be carried out to improve these properties.