Foamed Bitumen Mixtures for Road Construction Made with 100% Waste Materials: A Laboratory Study

Nicola Baldo, Fabio Rondinella, Fabiola Daneluz and Marco Pasetto
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Nicola Baldo: Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA), University of Udine, Via del Cotonificio 114, 33100 Udine, Italy
Fabio Rondinella: Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA), University of Udine, Via del Cotonificio 114, 33100 Udine, Italy
Fabiola Daneluz: Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA), University of Udine, Via del Cotonificio 114, 33100 Udine, Italy
Marco Pasetto: Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (DICEA), University of Padua, Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padua, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Nowadays, budget restrictions for road construction, management, and maintenance require innovative solutions to guarantee the user acceptable service levels respecting environmental requirements. Such goals can be achieved by the re-use of various waste materials at the end of their service life in the pavement structure, therefore avoiding their disposal in landfill. At the same time, significant savings are achieved on natural aggregate by replacing it with such waste materials, improving the economic and environmental sustainability of road constructions. The purpose of this study is to discuss a laboratory investigation about foamed bitumen-stabilized mixtures for road foundation layers, in which the aggregate structure was entirely made up of industrial by-products and civil wastes, namely metallurgical slags such as electric arc furnace (EAF) and ladle furnace (LF) slags, coal fly (CF) ash, bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI), glass waste (GW) and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Combining these recycled aggregates in different proportions, six foamed bitumen mixtures were produced and investigated in terms of indirect tensile strength, stiffness modulus, and fatigue resistance. The leaching test carried out on the waste materials considered did not show any toxicological issue and the best foamed bitumen mixture’s composition was characterized by 20% of EAF slags, 10% of LF slags, 20% of MSWI ash, 10% of CF ash, 20% of GW, and 20% of RAP. Its mechanical characterization presented a dry indirect tensile strength at 25 °C of 0.62 MPa (well above the Italian technical acceptance limits), a stiffness modulus at 25 °C equal to 6171 MPa, and a number of cycles to failure at 20 °C equal to 6989 for a stress level of 300 kPa.

Keywords: pavement engineering; road foundation; foamed bitumen; waste materials; recycling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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