Effect of Almond Ash as Partial Replacement of Cement Filler on the Performance of HMA

Several of the newly constructed highway pavements in Nigeria have shown early failures with far-reaching negative impacts on both roadway safety and economy. Major types of these failures are permanent deformation (rutting) and cracking. Fillers were not used as a result of high cost and scarcity of conventional fillers. The objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of new different fillers extracted from different local sources on the performance of asphalt mixtures. The effect of partial replacement of conventional and content on the failures potential of asphalt concrete as well as other mix properties was investigated. A detailed laboratory study is carried out by preparing asphalt mixtures specimens using aggregate from akanpa quarry, (40-50) grade asphalt from construction company and almond leave ash source local and Portland cement were tested in the laboratory. Marshal Mix design was made using all of fillers and different ratios to evaluate the performance of filler in the asphalt mixture. The mechanical properties of mixes were studied using marshal tests. Results of this study indicate that replacement of Portland cement by 1% of almond leave ash (i.e. 0.2 ratio) met the criteria for marshal test for light and medium traffic. Furthermore, coal fly ash cannot be used as mineral filler in hot mix asphalt paving applications.