Evaluating of plastic bottle waste on moisture damage of asphalt concrete mixture

Moisture damage of asphalt pavement is described as the progressive deterioration of asphalt mixture caused by a loss in adhesion between both the surface of aggregate and the asphalt cement and a loss in adhesion inside a binder when water is present. Moisture damage is a worldwide problem because it affects the performance capacity of asphalt pavements, resulting in a variety of distress modes, such as stripping or raveling. This work aims to improve the asphalt mixes resistance to moisture by using plastic bottle waste. Several percentages of plastic bottle waste (PBW) were used, i.e., 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1, and 1.2% by weight of the total mix. One type of virgin asphalt used; is asphalt cement grade (40/50) from the AL-Nasiriya refinery. Two groups of mixtures were prepared, the control with virgin asphalt, and modified with plastic bottle waste. Two tests were performed in this work to evaluate the effect of plastic bottle waste on asphalt mix moisture susceptibility "Tensile Strength Ratio Test" and "Double Punching Shear Test" as well as "Resilient Modulus Test" and "Marshall Test" to evaluate the effect of plastic bottle waste on Marshall Stability and Flow. The results of this work lead to several conclusions, which mainly refer to the benefit of using plastic bottle waste for moisture resistance improvement. Maximum values for tensile strength ratio, double punching shear, resilient modulus, Marshall stability, and flow were achieved at 0.5% (PBW) of plastic bottle waste.