Usage of Exclusive Plastic-Based Pre-fabricated Panels in Road Construction: A Feasibility Study

The usage of plastic in pavement construction is no new practice as it contributes to cutting down the waste plastic pile and also makes the bitumen mix better. Along those lines, the present study goes a further mile and tries to check the feasibility of constructing exclusive plastic-based pre-fabricated plastic panel pavements. Thus, making the entire construction practice even more sustainable. A 3D finite element modelling (FEM) study has been conducted to check the feasibility of the usage of exclusive polypropylene-based pre-fabricated panels for road construction. A polypropylene plastic slab laid on an elastic solid foundation was subjected to thermal and vehicular loads and then the responses are compared to those of a concrete pavement slab to check the feasibility of this practice. The FEM results showed that the stress responses of the plastic-based slab are better than the rigid pavement slab but there is a need to look into the deflection characteristics of the plastic material panels.