COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HYDRATED LIME (HL) AND ORDINARY PORTLAND CEMENT (OPC) AS FILLER IN ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENT

There are many ways to improve the performance of asphalt concrete mixtures to
minimize distress such as permanent deformation and fatigue on highway pavements.
One of these ways is by adding fillers. Commonly used fillers that have been known
as anti-stripping agent are Hydrated Lime (HL) and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC),
which both share the same predominant component, i.e. Lime (CaO). This study
focuses on comparing the engineering characteristics of asphalt concrete mixtures
using Hydrated Lime (HL) and Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) as mineral fillers to
improve the performance of the mixtures. The fundamental engineering properties of
the mixtures were determined through the Marshall Mix design. The Optimum
Bitumen Content (OBC) was then used to prepare the specimens for further
performance tests. The performance test included permanent deformation tests using
creep and wheel tracking tests and beam fatigue test to determine the fatigue
characteristics of the mixtures. Findings of this study showed that the smaller particle
size as well as the irregular shape of the HL as shown by the Scanning Electron
Microscopy (SEM) test contributed to good interlocking of the aggregates in the
mixtures. This was not observed in mixtures with OPC fillers which were of spherical
particle shape. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed that the HL particle has a
higher capacity to diffract the X-rays, proving that it is a stronger material particle
than the OPC. The Wheel Tracking test results showed that HL mixtures underwent
less deformation than the OPC mixtures. A similar trend was observed in the
Dynamic Creep Test. Based on the Beam Fatigue test, mixtures containing 4 % HL
showed the best performance in fatigue amongst the other mixtures.