REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Bitumen

Asphalt is a dark brown-black cement like material obtained by

petroleum refinement and containing bitumen as the predominant component.

Because of its remarkable waterproofing and bonding qualities, it is primarily

used for road construction and roofing materials. The hard road surfaces rely

on Bitumen’s capability to glue aggregates of stone and sand together.

Bitumen are highly complex and not well-characterized materials containing

saturated and unsaturated aliphatic and aromatic compounds with up to 150

carbon atoms. Their composition varies depending on the sources of crude oil.

Asphalt typically contains 80% of carbon; approximately 10% hydrogen; up to

6% sulfur; small amounts of oxygen and nitrogen; traces of metals such as

iron, nickel, and vanadium (Occupational Safety & Health Administration,

2008).

Bitumen is of the oil processing byproducts. Bitumen’s properties are

influenced by the source of oil itself and by the technological process of oil

processing. Most European refineries, of course, are processing for reasons of

the resale of petroleum products, especially petroleum suitable for the

recovery of light and middle fractions. Therefore, light petroleum is required,

with low yields of heavy fractions which are highly economically and in

dispositions efficient for processors on the petroleum market. From the

perspective of the refinery the content and the ratio of asphaltenes and

maltenes as essential
 7

components of bitumen become less important, however, this can significantly

impact on future properties of the bituminous binder (Holy et al., 2019).

Polypropylene (PP)

Polypropylene is a downstream petrochemical product derived from

the olefin monomer propylene. The polymer is produced through a process of

monomer connection called addition polymerization. PP is a lightweight

polymer with a density of 0.90 g/cm3 that makes it suitable in many industrial

applications. PP has an excellent chemical resistance. It is relatively stiff and

has a high melting point, low density and relatively good resistance to impacts.

Typical crystallinity of PP is between 40-60%. PP is a low-cost thermoplastic

polymer with excellent properties like flame resistance, transparency, high

heat distortion temperature, dimensional stability and recyclability making it

ideal for a wide range of applications. PP is a polymer prepared catalytically

from propylene. It is major advantage is related to the high temperature

resistance which makes PP particularly suitable for items such as trays,

funnels, pails, bottles, etc. Polypropylene is a free-color material with excellent

mechanical properties and it is better than polyethylene for the previous

reasons. PP is a
 8

highly versatile material meaning that diversity in structural designs and

mechanical properties are achievable (Maddah, 2016)

Polypropylene (PP) in Asphalt

The study of Abtahi et al., (2013) revealed that the penetration and

ductility of modified bitumen decreased with addition of PP fibers while the

softening point increased. Marshall test Results illustrates that PP can

statistically affect the properties and improve the consistency of the mixture.

Therefore, it is concluded that HRAC is suitable for use in hot regions due to

growth in the void total mix (VTM) and stability.

Due to the Adhesion between PP fibers and bitumen, the

strengthening mechanism in asphalt concrete is somehow different. The

improvement of asphalt concrete shows the positive effect of polypropylene

fibers. The fiber-reinforced mixture exhibits good resistance to rutting,

prolonged fatigue life and less reflection cracking. Therefore, the application of

PP fibers alters the characterization of asphalt mixture in a very beneficial way

(Tapkin, 2007).

The study of Raouf et al., (2018) presents a sustainable construction

project model using polypropylene (PP) to improve some physical properties

of asphalt. Results shows that PP as an additive enhances most of the

properties of asphalt because of the adhesion bond between PP and asphalt.

 8

The additive increases the mixture’s indirect tensile strength at high

temperature due to its

 9

improved adhesion property. Therefore, asphalt mixture containing PP can be

used for the construction of bituminous roads in warmer regions from the view

point of stability and stiffness. But according to Bayat et at., (2016) PP as fiber

additive with lengths of 6, 12, 19 mm increases the Marshall Stability by (38%)

and decreased Flow by (39%). These results shows that PP can be helpful for

increasing pavement life.

Stability of Bituminous Mixes

The study of Eme et al., (2015) showed that with the increase of the

amount of rubber aggregate, the Marshal Stability also decreases. Since

rubber is as hard as the crushed stone aggregates, the rubber chunks tend to

absorb some of its energy imparted, resulting in weaker aggregate structure. It

can also be seen that as the rubber content increases from 2 to 10%, the

Marshall stability decreases from 6.20kN to 3.51kN.

According to Yin et al., (2018), with the addition of waste nylon wire

content improves the Marshall stability of SMA. As waste nylon wire content

increases, the Marshall stability increases from the start, and then decreases

dramatically. When the content of waste nylon wire is 1.0%, the stability of

SMA reaches the maximum (11.43kN), which improve by 23% compared to

SMA without the addition of waste nylon wire.

 10

Flow of Bituminous Mixes

The flow characteristics of modified asphaltic concrete according to

Eme et al., (2015) increases as the rubber content also increases. The flow

value control mix (0% rubber content) which was 4.04mm, reduced to 3.68mm

flow for 2% 4.75mm rubber particle size content and increases to 3.71mm for

4% rubber content and as the rubber content increased from 6-10 percent.

Air Voids in Bituminous Mixes

The results of the study conducted by Ebrahimi (2010) show that

polypropylene can be helpful for increasing pavements life as other studies

are also show this improvement, more on, increasing air void is important for

the pavements designed to serve in hot regions where flashing and bleeding

are one of the main problems which can be solved by increasing air void.

Using Superpave Method showed increase in percent of Air Voids in compare

with Marshall, optimum amount of asphalt jumped to 4.5% by weight of total

mix, but again same results were observed in VMA (20% increase), VFA (17%

decrease) and Air Voids (61.7% increase), Gmm at Nini was decreased 2.8%

and in Nde.