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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1

Conclusions

Porous asphalt was originally designed to improve traffic safety when used as a pavement surfacing material. It is normally used as material for the wearing course to prevent ponding water thereby reduce splash and spray, minimize aquaplaning potential, diminish headlight glare in wet weather and improve the skid resistance. The major disadvantage of using this material is the relatively short service life particularly on heavily trafficked sites. fforts have been made to improve the

durability of the material by using modified bitumen to lengthen its service life. If the life of the surfacing can be increased without significant loss in other mi! properties, this type of material will become more economically attractive and may be more widely used.

In this study, a new binder additive, known as "#$# which was developed by "arin Tech %orea, was used to improve the bonding between the aggregates and bitumen. The method used to adopt porous asphalt technology from "arin Tech %orea to suit $alaysian quarry practice involves fabricating porous mi!es according to four trial gradations and comparing them with mi! properties stipulated in the %orean specifications

The design binder content of the selected gradation was then determined based on the binder drainage and &antabrian tests. The binder drainage test indicates the ma!imum binder content that a porous mi! can sustain without the occurrence of e!cessive

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binder drainage. Therefore, it was used to specify the upper limit of the design binder content. The &antabrian test for abrasion loss was used to determine the lower limit of the design binder content. The &antabrian test indicates the minimum binder content to assure resistance against particles losses resulting from traffic loads.

)amples using this gradation and design binder contents were prepared using the conventional *+P bitumen, *+P bitumen with varying percentage of "#$# and ),) modified bitumen. The specimens were then evaluated with a series of laboratory tests such as $arshall stability, resilient modulus, dynamic creep and wheel tracking. -enerally, the results indicate an improvement on the engineering properties and performance with the addition of "#$#.

,ased on laboratory test results analysis, the following conclusions can be made.

/a0 The average porosity reduces linearly as the binder content increases. The results indicate that the porosity of base bitumen and ),) mi!es e!ceed 123 and 1+3 respectively while subsequent increment of "#$# quantities causes a general drop in porosity. The results also show, the addition of "#$# at

+.'3 interval causes a general drop in porosity. The porosities of the +.'3 to 2.'3 "#$# mi! grouping show a marked difference with mi!es made with 1.+3 "#$#.

/b0 The average mi! density increases proportionally with bitumen content. $i!es made with ),) bitumen e!hibit a higher average mi! density compared to mi!es prepared using *+P bitumen. The density of ),) mi!es lie between the

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+3 "#$# and +.'3 "#$# mi!es. The results also showed that the mi!es become denser as the "#$# content increases. 5or instance, at 1.+3 "#$#, the mi! density at 63 binder content is 2.7*7g8cm ( while at +3 and 23 "#$#, the corresponding density is respectively 2.7'' and 2.7*6g8cm(.

/c0 The 9$# increases proportionally with bitumen content. :hen the 9$# is too high, no amount of bitumen added will overfill the voids. The direct effect of adding modifier is a reduction in 9$#. The 9$# of ),) mi!es lie between the +3 "#$# and +.'3 "#$# mi!es. The +3 "#$# mi! e!hibit the highest 9$# followed by ),) and other "#$# mi!es in increasing "#$# contents.

/d0 The 95, increases proportionally with bitumen content. The general effect of modifier on mi! properties is to increase their 95,. The addition of ),) modified bitumen increases the 95, by (.(3. -enerally, the 95, increases as the "#$# quantity increases.

/e0 The coefficient of permeability;bitumen content relationship for the porous asphalt studied a general drop in permeability values as the bitumen content increases. #ll mi!es tested that incorporates "#$# are less permeable than the ),) mi!es. $i! without "#$# is the most permeable compared to all other mi!es but the general trend remains that the permeability reduces as bitumen content increases.

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/f0 5rom the $arshall stability test, the variation in stability with binder content is small and indicates that the stability is not sensitive to changes in binder content. This is one of the reasons why the $arshall mi! design method could not be used to design porous mi!es. -enerally, with the e!ception of 1.+3 "#$# mi!, the ),) mi!es e!hibit the highest stability compared to "#$# mi!es.

/g0 5rom the &antabrian test results, the resistance to disintegration is highly sensitive to variations in bitumen content, particularly in the lower range of bitumen content. The ),) mi! is the most resistant to abrasion loss compared to conventional and "#$# mi!es. #t 4.+3 binder content, the abrasion loss of ),) mi! is 1+3 while the equivalent value for base bitumen mi! is (*.<3. #ddition of "#$# in higher quantities increases resistance to abrasion and the subsequent mi! durability. This means the addition of a mere +.'3

"#$# to porous mi!es via the dry process can reduce the percentage of abrasion loss up to *3.

/h0 5rom the binder drainage tests, the use of ),) modified bitumen and "#$# help to mitigate the problem of binder drainage compared to base bitumen *+P mi!. #ddition of "#$# also has the effect of increasing the target binder content.

/i0 5rom the resilient modulus tests, the incorporation of ),) modified binder causes an increase of resilent modulus by two times compared to conventional

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mi!es. #ddition of "#$# in higher quantities increases the resilient modulus value and the subsequent mi! elasticity.

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5rom the dynamic creep tests as the binder content increases, the creep stiffness of the mi! also increases accordingly. The stiffness modulus

increases as much as '+ percent as compared with the same mi! without "#$# content. 5or modified and unmodified mi!es, stiffness tends to =n average, the stiffness of the

increase as bitumen content increases.

modified bitumen mi!es is between '' and 663 higher than conventional mi!es. The stiffness increases proportionally to bitumen content. This

suggests that with higher the bitumen content in a mi!, the higher value for slope which indicating the increasing of stiffness.

/k0 5rom the study of varying "#$# concentrations, mi!es with 13 "#$# contents e!hibits the most favourable stability, resilient modulus, creep and rut depth. >owever, mi!es incorporating 13 "#$# e!hibits porosity less than 1+3 and low permeability values which are very important parameters in open mi!es. =n this basis, the mi! with 23 "#$# is recommended for use in field construction of porous pavements.

5.2

Recommen !"ions #o$ Fu$"%e$ Rese!$c%

fforts have been made to improve the durability of the material by using "#$# and ),) modified binder that make it possible to use lower binder contents. If the small amount of binder can be used without any adverse effect on bonding strength and significant loss in other properties, this type of material will become more

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economically attractive and may be more applicable.

)ome problems mainly

concerned with durability have to be overcomes but recent laboratory work using binders modified by the addition of rubbers, polymers or epo!y resins indicate that significant improvements are possible. The use of these binders would also appear to bestow additional benefits of improving resistance to permanent deformation in the wheel tracks and increase contribution to the structural strength of the pavement as a whole.

To further enhance the data obtained from this study, the following areas of investigation are recommended.

/a0 In this study, the impact mode of compaction via the $arshall hammer was used. This compaction mode does not mimic the action of the field roller compactor. $ost likely, the properties of samples compacted by these two modes will be different. To overcome this, it is suggested to compact the porous asphalt specimens using an asphalt slab compactor. 9erify laboratory samples and field core samples are of similar properties.

/b0 5uture research can be carried out to ascertain the effect of improving the porous mi! by using other additives such as pulverized fuel ash /P5#0, fibers and other waste material. The use of P5# may enable mi! to be compacted at low temperature while use of fibers may helps to evaluate the e!tent binder drainage. /c0 In this study, the specimen density, hence air voids, is obtained based on specimen geometry. This method is accurate assuming the surfaces of

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?specimens are perfectly smooth. )ince this may not be a reality, additional research is needed to evaluate other more accurate, fast and reliable methods of density determination.

/d0 =nly virgin or unaged porous asphalt samples are tested in this investigation. It is well known that porous asphalt aged more rapidly compared to dense mi!es. >ence, further research is suggested to evaluate the effects of porous mi!es incorporating "#$# when subjected to short term and long term ageing through standard procedures developed by researchers.

/e0 This results of this study shows favourable findings when "#$# is incorporated in porous mi!es. It is suggested to evaluate on similar

improvement in mi! properties can be attained using dense mi!es such as asphaltic concrete

/f0 The use of modified binders intended to counteract pavement distress has been observed for a long time. In modification of bitumen, different additives as well as chemical reaction techniques may be used. 5or further research,

comprehensive laboratory study on binder rheology, binder storage stability and binder ageing must be done before the mechanical engineering performance test is carried out. This is because the rheological changes during ageing are greatly influenced by characteristics of polymers.

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