Potential of Using Waste Materials in Flexible Pavement Structures Identified by Optimization Design Approach

Primož Jelušič, Süleyman Gücek, Bojan Žlender (), Cahit Gürer, Rok Varga, Tamara Bračko, Murat V. Taciroğlu, Burak E. Korkmaz, Şule Yarcı and Borut Macuh
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Primož Jelušič: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Süleyman Gücek: Faculty of Engineering, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar 03200, Turkey
Bojan Žlender: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Cahit Gürer: Faculty of Engineering, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar 03200, Turkey
Rok Varga: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Tamara Bračko: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Murat V. Taciroğlu: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Mersin University, Mersin 33343, Turkey
Burak E. Korkmaz: Faculty of Engineering, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar 03200, Turkey
Şule Yarcı: Faculty of Engineering, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar 03200, Turkey
Borut Macuh: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: This paper presents the design of geosynthetic reinforced flexible pavements and their modification by incorporating waste materials into bonded and unbonded layers of the pavement structure. The optimal design of flexible pavements was achieved by minimizing the construction cost of the pavement. The incorporation of waste materials into the pavement structure affects the material properties. Therefore, along with the traffic load, the effects of the material properties of the asphalt concrete, base layer, sub-base layer, and subgrade were analyzed in terms of pavement structure costs and CO 2 emissions of materials used in pavement construction. In addition, a comparison was made between pavements with and without geosynthetic reinforcement in terms of design, optimum construction cost, and CO 2 emissions. The use of geosynthetics is even more effective in pavement structures that contain waste materials in an unbound layer, both in terms of cost and CO 2 emissions. The minimum value of the California Bearing Ratio of the subgrade was determined at which the use of geosynthetic reinforcement for pavement structure with and without the inclusion of waste materials is economically and sustainably justified. The use of geosynthetics could result in a 15% reduction in pavement structure cost and a 9% reduction in CO 2 emissions due to the reduced thickness of unbound layers. In addition, reducing the CBR of the unbound layer from 100% to 30% due to the inclusion of waste materials implies a cost increase of up to 13%. While the present study is based on an empirical pavement design method in which pavement thickness is limited by the pavement thickness index, the same minimum thicknesses are obtained in the optimization process regardless of whether the objective function is the minimum construction cost or minimum CO 2 emissions.

Keywords: pavement design; waste materials; optimization; minimum construction cost; CO 2 emissions; geosynthetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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