Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 1181–1185

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effect of glass cullet on the improvement of the dynamic behaviour of

asphalt concrete
M. Arabani ⇑
Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Guilan, P.O. Box 3756, Rasht, Islamic Republic of Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The stiffness modulus is one of the most important parameters for the prediction of pavement strength
Received 13 March 2010 against dynamic loads. Previous research indicated that glass can reduce the construction costs of asphalt
Received in revised form 19 August 2010 concrete pavements while providing better dynamic behaviour because of its unique properties. In this
Accepted 2 September 2010
research, the behaviour of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) in different temperature conditions depending on
Available online 25 October 2010
the variation of the admixture contents and the gradation of the aggregates will be evaluated. Afterwards,
for the first time, models for the prediction of the stiffness modulus of waste glass–asphalt in terms of
Keywords:
three different parameters including temperature, percentage of additives and the aggregate gradation
Asphalt pavement
Glass–asphalt
will be presented. The results of this research are indicative of an improvement in the dynamic behaviour
Glass cullet of glass–asphalt mixture in comparison with conventional HMA mixtures.
Stiffness modulus Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Dynamic behaviour

1. Introduction
About 10 million tonnes of waste and crushed glass will be pro-
duced in large cities world-wide, which compose about 3–5% of all
household wastes [1]. Glass–asphalt mixture has been used as a
way of recycling waste glass since 1960, and it was about 20 years
ago that researchers used waste glass cullet in asphalt mixture
aggregates. The first use of glass–asphalt was in the pavements
of road test sites to evaluate their strength against moisture [1].
The amount and intensity of the light reflection derived by exper-
iments on pavements at night increased with increasing amounts
of waste glass used. Suitable reflection of a road pavement can im-
prove the conditions for less hazardous driving [2].
Furthermore, research carried out previously demonstrated that
the breaking and speed increasing process of the vehicles improved
by using crushed glass in pavements because of its all-around frac-
ture strength and greater internal friction. On the other hand, the
glass particles are so smooth and their silica content is so high that
they become like hydrophilic materials. In this way, glass–asphalt
pavements must be strengthened against water susceptibility.
However, the cohesion between bitumen and stone aggregates
can be easily destroyed because of the smooth surface of the glass
particles in certain circumstances and can result in asphalt pave-
ment stripping. Additives, like hydrated lime, are usually used to
prevent the harmful phenomenon of glass–asphalt mixtures while
retaining their useful characteristics [3]. Because of the small ratio
⇑ Tel.: +98 9111312670.
E-mail address: m_arbani@yahoo.com
of absorbed bitumen, the glass particles would have a slight coat-
ing of bitumen on their surfaces, which results in small fractioning
strength in the joint surface area of glass and asphalt particles.
Thus, the fractioning strength of glass–asphalt mixtures is less than
that of traditional asphalt concretes. As stated before, this defi-
ciency of glass–asphalt mixtures can be avoided by adding 1–2%
of lime to the mixture. Moreover, it was indicated by previous
investigations that a higher percentage of lime would result in
higher flexibility strength [4]. Satisfactory performance of glass–
asphalt pavements containing 10–15% glass cullet content by
weight of mix occurs in surface coating mixtures. In addition, con-
sidering the limits and allowable technical properties including
safety issues (skin cutting and tire puncturing), usually a maxi-
mum size of 4.75 mm can be used as the maximum allowable glass
particle dimension in pavements. In this research 2% of a type of
lime (by weight of mixture) was used as anti-stripping agent [5].
In the research by Nan Su and Chen, as section of a specimen with
10% waste glass content by weight of mix showed suitable perfor-
mance in comparison with pavement without glass content after
one year [6]. A recent study by Arabani et al. in 2008 on the dy-
namic characteristics of asphalt mixtures containing waste glass
aggregates and conventional asphalt concrete mixtures showed
an increase in the stiffness modulus of glass–asphalt pavements
in comparison with conventional asphalt-mix. Three percent of hy-
drated lime was used as an anti-stripping agent additive, and the
results were compared with those of a specimen without anti-
stripping. The stiffness modulus of the glass–asphalt mixtures with
hydrated lime showed considerable increase in comparison with
other specimens [7].

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.09.043
1182 M. Arabani / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 1181–1185

In the following study, the optimum bitumen content of con- Table 2

ventional asphalt concrete and glass–asphalt mixtures was deter- Gradation of the glass cullet aggregates.

mined by considering the variations in the percentage of Sieve size #4 #8 #16 #30 #50 #100 #200
admixture and aggregate gradations. To determine the optimum Percentage passing 100 63 42 27 14 9 2
bitumen content, asphalt concrete specimens were prepared at dif-
ferent temperatures and were subjected to stiffness modulus test-
ing using the indirect tensile test method. Finally, a model for the
stiffness modulus behaviour of glass–asphalt mixtures is presented 3. Results and discussion
based on the experimental results.
Figs. 3 and 4 show the variation of the stiffness modulus of the
HMA and glasphalt mixture (containing four different percents of
2. Materials and methods glass cullet mixtures) for two gradations of Topeka and binder at
three different temperatures. As shown in the figures, the samples
The aggregates used in this study were graded using the continuous type III and containing crushed glass and hydrated lime show an increasing
IV scale of the AASHTO standard are presented in Table 1 [8]. Pure bitumen 60–70
trend in their stiffness modulus. The anti-stripping characteristics
was used in the preparation of the samples. The characteristics of the bitumen were
controlled according to the ASTM D946. The glass cullet used in this research was of lime result in stronger cohesion between stone and glass aggre-
provided through the waste glass of a glass industrial production company. The gates with their bitumen coatings. Furthermore, interlocking be-
maximum size of the glass aggregates was 4.75 mm. The gradation of glass cullet tween particles increases as a result of the increase in the glass
aggregates can be seen in Table 2. content of the mixture because of its all around crushed surface.
The admixture of the glass–asphalt mixture was hydrated lime, which works as
an anti-stripping agent. Its properties are presented in Table 3 [9]. Because of its
Therefore, the stiffness modulus of the HMA increases. The higher
high stiffness and anti-stripping characteristics, hydrated lime can increase the internal friction, which is due to the increased angularity of the
stiffness modulus and strength against moisture of the HMA by changing the char- glass particles, plays an important role in increasing of the stiffness
acteristics of the bitumen used. It also prevents cracking of the pavement layer [10]. modulus of samples with glass cullet content. However, when it is
The method of spreading of dry lime over moisturised stone aggregates was used to
higher than a specific limit (optimum content) of waste glass, the
mix the lime and aggregates. This procedure requires equal distribution of the hy-
drated lime on the aggregates. The aggregates must be moisturised, and a water stiffness modulus decreases. According to Figs. 3 and 4, the rate
content of about 2–3% more than the saturation water content of the aggregates of increase of the stiffness modulus declines if the glass content
with dry surface (saturated surface dry [SSD] condition) is needed. The lime-mixed passes a certain optimum percentage because the higher densities
aggregates were retained for a certain period of time for preparation and then be- of glass in the HMA mixtures lead to a more fragile structure.
came dry. This method causes more certainty about the equal distribution of lime
over the aggregates. Moreover, in this way, the part of the lime that does not cohere
Moreover, the high smoothness of the glass cullet particles pre-
to the aggregates is distributed throughout the mixture, playing an important role vents them from absorbing bitumen adequately. As another effect
in the modification of the bitumen characteristics by increasing its viscosity [11]. of this phenomenon, the cohesion between the stone and glass
The programme of the prepared samples and the experimental tests can be ob- aggregates with bitumen decreases. As a result of all these effects,
served in Table 4. The Marshall test was carried out to determine the optimum bitu-
a glass content greater than a certain limit decreases the stiffness
men content of asphalt concrete mixtures containing different percents of waste
glass cullet aggregates. The results obtained by the Marshall test for samples with modulus of the samples. In this study, the maximum stiffness mod-
topeka and binder gradation are provided in Tables 5 and 6. The Marshall test was ulus occurs at about 15% glass content, above which the stiffness
done according to ASTM D1559 [12]. The stiffness modulus of the samples was modulus tends to decrease.
determined by the indirect tensile strength method (ITSM) using a Nottingham As-
phalt Testing system. This system was designed in 1980 for the characterisation of
the mechanical behaviour of HMA under dynamic loading [13]. The stiffness mod-
Table 3
ulus test was performed by applying a linear force along the diameter axis of the
Properties of the hydrated lime used.
specimen. The loading condition and the location of the sensors in the ITSM test
are shown in Fig. 1. The diagrams of the applied load and deformation versus time Minimum Maximum Maximum Maximum Maximum
are shown in Fig. 2. The Poisson ratio of the samples was given as 0.35 at the input percentage percentage percentage percentage of percentage of
screen of the ITSM test. Therefore, it was assumed to be 0.35 for the dynamic load- of Ca(OH)2 of of CaO of of H2O of aggregates aggregates
ing of HMA. the total the total the total remaining on remaining on
Regarding the deformation-time diagram, it can be seen that during the loading weight weight weight #30 #200
period the deformation increases, and in the unloading period, it decreases with a
high gradient; however, in the rest period the reduction gradient decreases. Fur- 90 7 3 2 12
thermore, it can be stated that with increasing number of loading cycles, the plastic
deformation of the specimen increases.
Each loading cycle is 1.0 s long, while the total duration of loading and unload-
ing is 0.1 s; therefore, the rest time period of each cycle is 0.9 s. In the stiffness mod- Table 4
ulus test using ITSM, the value of the stiffness modulus can be determined from Programme of specimen’s preparation and testing.
equation [13]:
Parameter Levels
Pðv þ 0:27Þ Percentage of waste glass cullet (0, 5, 10, 15, 20)% by weight of mix
SM ¼ ð1Þ
t  DH Test temperatures (5, 25, 40) °C
Type of gradations Topeka and binder
in which SM is the stiffness modulus, MPa; P the repeated load, N; v the poisson ra- Height of the HMA specimens 70 mm
tio, which is assumed to be 0.35 in HMA; t the thickness of HMA sample, mm; and Percentage of hydrated lime 3–5% by weight of mix
DH is the recoverable horizontal deformation, mm.

Table 1
Continuous type gradation for HMA, Topeka and binder layers.

Sieve size 25 mm (1 in.) 19 mm (3/4 in.) 12.5 mm (1/2 in.) 9.5 mm (3/8 in.) 4.75 mm (#4) 2.36 mm (#8) 0.3 mm (#50) 0.075 mm (#200)
Gradation type Percentage of weight passing (%)
Topeka – 100 90–100 – 44–74 28–58 5–21 2–10
Binder 100 90–100 – 56–80 35–65 23–49 5–19 2–8
 M. Arabani / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 1181–1185 1183

Table 5
Results obtained by the Marshall test for samples with topeka gradation.

Glass Bitumen Stability Flow Unit Void VMA VFA

content content (%) weight
(%)
0 5 970 2.39 2.314 5.22 15.22 65.71
5.5 1103 2.43 2.351 4.52 14.32 68.43
6 1147 3.15 2.347 4.33 14.92 1147
6.5 1069 3.21 2.346 3.75 15.41 75.66
5 5 1059 2.03 2.323 5.09 14.73 1059
5.5 1159 2.56 2.33 4.77 14.92 68.03
6 1262 3.06 2.341 4.24 14.97 71.68
6.5 1209 3.34 2.334 3.93 15.68 74.93
10 5 1230 2.55 2.331 4.82 14.27 66.22
5.5 1300 2.81 2.346 4.3 14.17 69.66
6 1278 2.98 2.34 4.09 14.84 72.45
6.5 1192 3.4 2.304 3.84 16.60 76.87
15 5 1273 2.71 2.314 4.59 14.73 68.84 Fig. 1. ITSM test configuration.
5.5 1305 2.95 2.329 4.21 14.63 71.22
6 1311 2.92 2.332 3.65 14.97 75.62
6.5 1294 3.11 2.305 3.42 16.40 79.15
20 5 1227 2.32 2.301 4.82 15.04 67.96
5.5 1247 2.88 2.318 4.46 14.87 70.00
6 1210 3.18 2.312 4.09 15.54 73.67
6.5 1180 3.65 2.283 3.74 17.04 78.05

Table 6
Results obtained by the Marshall test for samples with binder gradation.

Glass Bitumen Stability Flow Unit Void VMA VFA

content content (%) weight
(%)
0 4 828 2.47 2.301 5.98 14.48 58.70
4.5 993 2.31 2.337 4.74 13.60 65.13
5 989 3.04 2.34 4.53 13.94 67.50
5.5 950 3.45 2.326 3.25 14.90 78.19
5 4 858 2.3 2.281 6.31 15.06 58.10
Fig. 2. Load and deformation variation with time in the dynamic loading ITSM test
4.5 1011 2.26 2.323 5.01 13.95 64.08
[14].
5 1026 2.98 2.329 4.6 14.18 67.55
5.5 1003 3.01 2.326 3.85 14.74 73.88
10 4 823 2.26 2.275 6.29 15.12 58.40
the mixture decreases as a result of the greater ease with which the
4.5 963 2.42 2.305 5.33 14.45 63.11
5 1087 2.63 2.337 4.55 13.71 66.82 stone and glass aggregates slide, moreover softening of the HMA
5.5 1027 3.22 2.323 3.64 14.68 75.21 specimens.
15 4 1044 2.44 2.3 6.87 14.02 50.99 When the temperature increases, the viscosity of the binder de-
4.5 1189 2.63 2.331 5.03 13.31 62.22 creases thus allowing it to flow within the mix and relieve the
5 1131 3.29 2.305 4.02 14.73 72.71 stresses. However, bitumen may loose its ability to bind the aggre-
5.5 995 3.6 2.288 3.31 15.80 79.06 gates together at high temperature. Therefore, as the temperature
20 4 945 2.06 2.299 6.04 13.89 56.51 increases, the recoverable strain needed increases as well resulting
4.5 1107 2.63 2.314 5.4 13.78 60.81 in lower resilient modulus [15].
5 1075 2.87 2.3 4.63 14.75 68.61
5.5 943 3.23 2.28 3.96 15.93 75.15
As another observation from Figs. 3 and 4, the evolution of the
stiffness modulus is almost identical at different temperatures. It
means that at a certain temperature, samples with 15% glass con-
tent have the highest SM values. Additionally, the lower sensitivity
The increasing trend of the stiffness modulus in glasphalt sam- of glasphalt mixtures to variations in temperature is also visible.
ples with the glass content is not similar in samples prepared with Glasphalt with different glass contents do not show similar re-
Topeka and binder aggregate gradations. According to Figs. 3 and 4, sponses to changes in temperature. For instance, by increasing
the negative effects of higher than optimum contents of glass are the temperature from 5 °C to 40 °C, the strength of HMA declines
more profound in samples made of binder gradation, which can about 70%, while the strength of the glasphalt mixture experiences
be explained by the fabric of binder stone aggregates, which con- a reduction of about 50%.
sists of more coarse aggregates (i.e., it contains a lower amount
of particles passing a #4 sieve), so the effect of glass cullet content
will be more important to the behaviour of the fine aggregate por- 4. A model for the dynamic behaviour of glasphalt
tion of the samples.
Because of the high sensitivity of the bitumen to the variations With the experimental results and the numerical analysis of the
of temperature, the stiffness modulus of the HMA and glasphalt results with Minitab 15, tow models are proposed for prediction of
mixture decreases at higher temperatures. This phenomenon can the dynamic behaviour of both HMA and glasphalt concrete spec-
be explained by the viscosity and the stiffness modulus of the bitu- imens for different conditions depending on temperature, grada-
men, which decrease at higher temperatures; therefore, the SM of tion and glass content.
1184 M. Arabani / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 1181–1185

Fig. 3. Variation of the stiffness modulus of HMA samples with temperature at different glass cullet contents – Topeka samples.

Fig. 4. Variation of the stiffness modulus of HMA samples with temperature with different glass cullet contents – binder samples.

The proposed model for the prediction of the stiffness modulus The suggested model for the prediction of stiffness modulus of
of glasphalt mixtures with topeka gradation in terms of the varia- glasphalt mixtures with binder gradation in terms of the variation
tion in glass content and temperature can be seen below: in glass content and temperature are also presented below:

SM ¼ 753 þ 22:9A  13:9T R2 ¼ 79:5% ð2Þ SM ¼ 596 þ 13:1A  10:0T R2 ¼ 79:4% ð3Þ

Fig. 5. 3D interpretation of the proposed model for SM behaviour of Topeka Fig. 6. 3D interpretation of the proposed model for SM behaviour of binder
samples. samples.
 M. Arabani / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 1181–1185
In the above equations, parameters A and T refer to the admix-
ture content and temperature, respectively. Furthermore, SM intro-
duces the stiffness modulus of the specimens in MPa.
The three dimensional interpretation of the proposed models
are demonstrated in Figs. 5 and 6. They show that although the
SM behaviour of all of the specimens is highly dependent upon
the changes in the temperature, the addition of glass as an admix-
ture can improve the dynamic behaviour of glasphalt mixtures
even at high temperatures. Moreover, a complex interaction be-
tween the effects of different parameters can be observed that
might be a result of the heat transferring ability of glass in compar-
ison with the stone aggregates.
5. Conclusion
In this research, the dynamic behaviour of glasphalt mixtures
for different temperatures, variations in the admixture contents
and gradations of the aggregates were evaluated. For the first time,
models for the prediction of the stiffness modulus of waste glas-
phalt in terms of two different parameters: temperature and per-
centage of additives are presented. The results of this research
show an improvement in the dynamic behaviour of the glasphalt
mixture in comparison with HMA mixtures. The other important
results that can be drawn from this study are as follows:
– The results obtained by the Marshall test and ITSM test for
samples with topeka and binder gradation showed that
15% glass content is an optimal content of waste glass in
glasphalt.
– The samples containing glass cullet and hydrated lime have
an increasing trend in their stiffness modulus. The anti-strip-
ping characteristics of lime will result in stronger cohesion
between stone and glass aggregates with their bitumen
coatings.
– Higher internal friction, which is due to the more angularity
of glass particles, plays an important role in increasing the
stiffness modulus of samples with glass cullet content. On
the other hand, the high smoothness of the crushed glass
particles does not let them to absorb bitumen adequately;
therefore, greater glass content than a certain limit decreases
the stiffness modulus of the sample.
1185
– Because of the high sensitivity of the bitumen to the varia-
tions of temperature, the SM of HMA and glasphalt mixture
decreases at higher temperatures. This phenomenon can be
explained because the viscosity and the stiffness modulus
of the bitumen decrease at higher temperatures, and there-
fore the SM of the mixture decreases.
– Glasphalt mixtures with different glass contents do not show
similar responses to changes of temperature. However, the
glasphalt mixture dynamic behaviour is less sensitive to
the temperature changes in comparison to HMA.
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