AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON BEHAVIER OF MODIFIED BITUMEN USING RECYCLED PLANT

Plastic roads would be a boom for India's hot and extremely humid climate, where temperatures frequently cross 50°C and torrential rains create heavy damage, leaving most of the roads with big potholes. Since the road network is used so extensively in our country, we need a road network which is durable, strong, reliable, niggle Free, environment friendly & cost effective. Roads either have Flexible pavement or rigid pavement. The recent increase in traffic of commercial vehicles with notable variations in the temperature inevitably requires an alternative and improved pavement of high quality which shall also deliver good strength and better economy. To construct & maintain such a dense network of roads, we need heavy amount of raw materials which involves huge capital and time. The considerable use of packaged drinking water in the present days and the pollution threat imposed on the environment due to used non- degradable Polyethylene terephthalate [PET] bottles is very high. This demands the use of these waste PET bottles for some beneficial purposes. The present investigation was carried out to propose the use of shredded waste plastic bottles (PET) for the modification of bitumen binder with particular focus on the development of an effective pavement material that utilizes the plastic waste while catering to the needs of varying climatic conditions prevailing in India and also the heavy loads on pavements. This paper in detail presents the study on the methodology of using waste plastic bottles (PET) in modifying bituminous binders and the various tests performed on 60/70 grade bitumen. A detailed analysis of the engineering properties such as Penetration test, Ductility test, Viscosity test, Softening point test and Specific Gravity test are conducted on both conventional and modified bitumen samples for various percentages of replacements such as 0, 10, 20 and 30% respectively. This PET modified bitumen showed improved quality with % of optimum replacement falling between 10 to 20%