The Effect of Adding Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) on the Mechanical Properties of Pavement

Abstract

The failure of pavement has increased significantly over the years due to the increase in road traffic which is proportional to the insufficient degree of maintenance. Plastic water bottles which are being produced at large amount become a main problem in many societies when it can be found almost everywhere specially in landfills. Hence, waste plastic may cause environmental pollution because it is not a biodegradable material. So it will be useful when waste plastic water bottles were reused in some projects such as the pavement of roads, the waste plastic water bottles will increase the service life of roads also improve the performance of them in this research added five different proportions of (PET) in ( 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10%)  by weight of optimum bitumen to prepare the specimens . The tests include the determination of bulk density, stability and flow. Marshall Mix design requires the determination of the percentages of air voids and air voids of mineral aggregate VFA. The results detect the percentage (8)% as the best percentage of adding polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to the asphalt mixture It is found to give the maximum, VFA and minimum  Air Voids (AV), flow, compared to the conventional mixtures and gave better resistance against permanent deformations , reduce the pavement^,s cost and prevent the environmental pollution.