Abstract:
Modifying bitumen using fibers for superior performance is not a new phenomenon. The technique of fiber-reinforced bitumen began as early as 1950. Fiber reinforcement refers to incorporating materials with desired properties into other materials lacking those properties. The principal function of adding fiber to asphalt mixtures is to provide improved performance of the resulting composite. Fibers are also added to stabilize the binder during mixing and placement. An additional benefit of using fibers is that fibers have been shown to allow increased asphalt binder contents and thus increase film thicknesses thereby increasing durability. Asphalt cement modifiers have been used in pavement technology to enhance pavement performance and reduce different types of pavement distress, of which, rutting, low temperature cracking, fatigue cracking, stripping, and hardening are the most common failure. This research aims to investigate the effect of using jute fibers on hot mix asphalt mixture performance characteristics. There are two methods cited in literature for the introduction of fibers to the mix. Those are the wet and dry processes. The wet process blends the fibers with asphalt cement prior to incorporating the binder into the mixture. The dry process mixes the fiber with the aggregate before adding asphalt. Experimentally, the wet process is easier to perform and allows even distribution of fiber in the mixture. In this research, wet process was used. Laboratory measurements of jute fiber modified asphalt binders and mixtures were obtained at different fiber dosages (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%) and fiber lengths (0.5 cm, 1.5 cm, 2.5 cm). The rheological properties of jute fiber modified asphalt binders were tested using the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), and marshal properties and tensile strength of jute modified asphalt mixtures were tested using Marshal testing equipment.
Results show that using 2 % jute fiber by weight of binder improves the rheological properties of asphalt binders and using 2.1% fiber and 1.5 cm length improves the marshal properties and tensile strength of asphalt mixtures. Asphalt binder and mixture results demonstrate that jute fiber is recommendable to improve the rutting performance of hot mix asphalt mixture