Effect of Palm Fibers on Asphalt Pavement Properties

The continuous population growth around the world associated with industries development results in considerable amounts of waste materials. Therefore, a series concern has arisen to find environmentally safe treatment for these wastes. This research aims to study the possibility of using palm fibers locally available as waste materials in asphalt pavement industry. In particular, this work investigates the volumetric properties and tensile strength of asphalt mixtures manufactured with palm fibers. Asphalt mixtures were prepared with five contents of palms fibers (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0) % by weight of aggregate passing sieve No. 4 to compare their properties with that of traditional mixtures. Marshall and indirect tensile strength (ITS) test methods were conducted to evaluate the volumetric and mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures. It can be concluded that adding this type of fiber to asphalt mixtures is possible. It was found that adding different contents of palm fiber has generally increased the density, voids filled with asphalt, and tensile strength and decreased the voids in mineral aggregate (VMA) of asphalt mixtures. However, no inflection points can be noticed on the curves of these properties. That might suggest investigating more palm fiber contents to find its optimum.