Changes in Pavement Properties due to Fiber Additives

Abstract

An important factor that determines progress of a country is the transportation network. One of the basic components of transportation is pavement. In most countries especially in India, pavements are in bad condition. This is mainly due to poor maintenance of the road, use of low- quality material, etc. The defects like potholes appear on a pavement when it loses its ability to transfer the traffic load to subgrade. The transportation sector is growing continuously. This causes a drastic increase in the number of vehicles which causes an increase in traffic load. The existing pavements are not able to carry this increasing load. The conventional materials used in pavement construction can’t resist the high traffic load. It implies there is a need to improve the strength, quality, etc of pavement mix. One of the easiest and effective methods to achieve this is the addition of fibers. The fibers improve the mechanical, rheological and volumetric properties of mixes. Increased crack resistance, durability, adhesion, flexibility etc are some apparent advantages. Changes in properties of pavement mixes, when modified with synthetic fibers, natural fibers and mineral fibers, have been reviewed in this paper. The changes in characteristics of pavement mix like Marshall stability, flow value, indirect tensile strength, Marshall quotient, VMA(voids in mineral aggregate), VFA(voids filled with asphalt), drain down values, etc have been studied. Mixtures with fibers guarantee greater resistance to impacts, a decrease in the abrasive effect of traffic and delay of beginning and propagation of cracks.