Mechanical performance of asphalt mixture containing eco-friendly additive by recycling PET

The reason for conducting this research was to examine asphalt mixtures and the influence of additives obtained from recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) on their mechanical properties. Due to this, after the chemical recycling of PET, the substance resulting from the chemical reaction was added to the asphalt binder in different contents. In order to evaluate the mechanical performance of mixtures containing additives, a variety of different mechanical tests were carried out. In order to accomplish this goal, tests including dynamic creep, indirect tensile strength (ITS), and indirect tensile modulus (IDTM) were carried out to determine rutting, moisture susceptibility, and resilient modulus, respectively. The SCB test is used to determine how well a material resists cracking when subjected to low temperatures. The results showed that the addition of an additive derived from recycled PET could increase the rutting resistance, significantly improve resistance against moisture damage and increase cracking resistance at low temperatures. In accordance with the findings of the indirect tensile strength tests, indirect tensile modulus and SCB was the best performance related to the asphalt mixture containing 2% recycled PET. However, this result was different in the dynamic creep test, and the asphalt mixture containing 1% additive showed the best performance. The results of data analysis with one-way analysis of variance showed that all the data obtained in this study are statistically significant considering the confidence factor of 95%, so it can be said that the addition of recycled PET additive has a significant effect on the mechanical properties of the asphalt mixture.