Speaker
Description
Abstract. The major purpose of this study was to address the challenge of managing solid waste by assessing the compatibility of waste plastic-modified asphalt-rubber binders through rheological and morphological analyses. Blending operations incorporated varying proportions of crumb rubber (CR) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into the base asphalt binder covering six different compositions of CR and PET. Further, the ef-fect of CR and PET waste on binder properties was assessed through fun-damental binder consistency tests, which helped optimize the dosage of plastic-rubber combination in asphalt cement. Rheological tests encom-passed Penetration, softening point, viscosity, and multiple stress creep re-covery (MSCR), which assisted in investigating the viscosity-temperature susceptibility of the asphalt binders. Morphological assessments using high-resolution scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum provided insights into the internal structure and interface bonding of CR, PET, and asphalt binder. Notably, blends with 10% CR and 5% PET exhibited enhanced rutting resistance and improved viscoelastic properties compared to the base binder. The MSCR test high-lighted that the blends with higher CR and lower PET content contributed to improved viscoelastic properties. Conversely, the blend with higher PET and lower CR exhibited poor recovery at high strains, indicating lower re-sistance to rutting. The findings underscored the potential of specific CR-PET combinations in developing resilient and sustainable asphalt binders, emphasizing the need for further exploration in this domain.
