Performance evaluation of Nano wood ashes in asphalt binder and mixture

ABSTRACT

The wood ash, generated at a large scale globally, is often landfilled or open dump, which creates a land shortage and environmental issues. Incorporating wood by-products in asphalt materials helped improve the performance and mitigate the stated problems, but little work was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating wood ashes at the Nanoscale. Therefore, the aim is to study the effects of different Nano wood ashes on the performance of asphalt binder and mixtures. The mechanically-processed Nano wood ashes were used to produce asphalt binder and mixtures at 1%, 3%, and 5% by weight. Initially, X-ray diffraction was used to study chemical properties and Nano-size of wood ashes. The rheological and mechanical properties of modified binders and mixtures were assessed through physical tests, performance grading, frequency sweep, wheel tracker, dynamic modulus, four-point beam fatigue, bitumen bond strength, and rolling bottle tests. The results showed a significant improvement in rutting and moisture resistance and an insignificant effect on fatigue resistance of modified materials with increased concentration of all Nano-wood ashes. Overall, the results illustrated that incorporating nano-wood ash in asphalt materials can be regarded as an effective alternative for pavement applications that could minimise waste material disposal.

KEYWORDS:

• Nano wood ash
• asphalt mixtures
• bitumen
• recycling
• cleaner production
• environmental sustainability

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Civil engineering department at the University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila. Juan S. Carvajal-Munoz acknowledges the valuable support to conduct Ph.D. studies at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, provided by the Colombian sponsors Universidad del Norte (CCBUNDDA/12/2016), and Colciencias-Colfuturo (728 National Call, 2015).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).