“Waste Material-Based Fillers for Patching Potholes Using Warm Mix Asphalt: A Study”

In India, the majority of the road network comprises flexible pavements constructed using the traditional Hot Mix technology. However, this technology has various drawbacks, including environmental concerns related to the emission of greenhouse gases and health hazards for construction labourers. To address these issues, the warm mix asphalt (WMA) production method has been developed, with a lower production temperature than the traditional Hot Mix method. To evaluate the properties of materials used in WMA, laboratory experiments were conducted on aggregates and binders using standard marshal mix design methods. Based on these experiments, WMA was developed in the laboratory, and its stability characteristics were analyzed. To further improve the sustainability of WMA, this study focused on the evaluation of the performance of waste materials as fillers. The waste materials used here are conventional stone dust which was replaced with rice husk ash, waste glass powder, and waste brick powder in different percentages (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%). Marshal stability tests were conducted to analyze their strength properties and it was found that the WMA with 25% of all the fillers (SD: RHA: WGP: WBP) showed a Marshal Stability 26.93% higher than that of conventional WMA. Therefore, this study recommends the use of 25% of stone dust along with RHA, WGP, and WBP with 25% each for patching potholes with sustainable Warm Mix technology. Future research could focus on using different types of fillers to improve the sustainability of WMA to further levels.