Assessment of the suitability of coconut shell charcoal as filler in stone matrix asphalt

Abstract

For improvement of pavement of road, the use of asphalt material and its mixture are used so that their durability and performance can be enhanced. For which the suitable mixture that is been adopted is SMA Mix (Stone mastic asphalt or Stone matrix asphalt) which is better than bituminous Concrete or dense graded mix (DGM). It was first implemented in European Countries and North America. The Stone Mix asphalt is gap- graded mixture Consisting of Stone or Slag as Coarse aggregate, different binders are used (natural or artificial) as stabilizers and high bitumen Content. For Minimizing the Cost and increasing the efficiency of roads, many different alternative are used for improvement by using different waste materials as fillers among them Coconut shell charcoal is one of them. In the Research work, the main objective is to compare the results obtained by using fillers like Stone dust, Portland cement, Fly ash with Coconut Shell charcoal . The Properties that Coconut shell Charcoal possesses are resistance to crushing, absorption, surface moisture, grading, resistance to freezing, light weight, heating and synthetic resin glues which is most important for pavement of roads. Therefore its Stability and flow parameters and Air Void ratio are obtained so that it can be compared with different types of Fillers. From that we can establish a perfect combination so that it can be useful as a substitute as a filler for improving the quality and durability of pavement of roads. Therefore aggregate gradation taken as per IRC-SP-79 specification for SMA mix. The Binder Content are varied as 4%, 5%, 5.5%, 6%, 7% by weight of aggregates. 0.3% by weight of aggregate is used as Optimum Binder Content. Binder of 60/70 penetration grade bitumen is used. For carrying out the experiment, Marshall test method is used for obtaining better results