Improve the Marshall stability of porous asphalt pavement with HDPE addition

Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Andalas, Padang, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: elsaeka@eng.unand.ac.id; elsaeka@gmail.com

Abstract

Porous asphalt is a gap graded pavement that is 20% air voids which enables rainwater that falls on the road surface to flow through the pavement and into drainage on the side of the road. Porous asphalt has a high shear resistance and dries quickly but its stability is low, it is costly to maintain and needs replacing after only a short time. Despite these disadvantages, porous asphalt is still a good choice in area that experiences heavy annual rainfall. High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), an opaque plastic, is harder and stronger than porous asphalt with a tensile strength of 3100-5500 psi. It is resistant to high temperatures. This study aims to investigate the effect of various percentages of HDPE as an additive to produce an HDPE Asphalt Binder for porous asphalt pavement. Marshall parameters were determined based on the AAPA 2004 standard. It was found that 4% HDPE achieved a maximum stability value of 870 kg at the optimum asphalt content for porous asphalt pavement was 5.54%. Stability of porous asphalt pavement with optimum asphalt content value was 61.1% higher after the addition of HDPE. Thus, the use of HDPE as an additive in Asphalt Binder was able to increase the binding strength of the asphalt minimising the disadvantages of the low stability of traditional porous asphalt pavement.