Laboratory investigation of the performance properties of hot mix asphalt containing waste glass

Abstract

CSIR is currently undertaking a study on potential utilization of crushed glass as a substitute material to natural aggregate in asphalt mixes. As part of the study, laboratory investigation is needed to determine the performance characteristics of a hot mix asphalt produced with the crushed glass material. In this paper, the glass asphalt mix is evaluated for its stiffness characteristics, rutting potential and fatigue performance and compared with a dense- graded asphalt surfacing mix. The results indicate that the asphalt mix with crushed glass could outperform the conventional dense-graded mix in terms of rutting. The fatigue performance was comparable although the conventional mix performed marginally better than the glass asphalt mix. This fatigue behaviour is attributed to the fact that the glass asphalt mix was stiffer than the conventional mix at typical field conditions, i.e. temperature of 20°C and a loading frequency of 10Hz. It can be concluded that waste glass materials can be reclaimed and re-processed into asphalt mixes that are cost-effective and at the same time exhibit good performance.