Incorporation of Sugarcane Bagasse Ash to investigate the mechanical behavior of Stone Mastic Asphalt

Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) is one kind of new generation gap graded hot mix asphalt with higher content of asphalt with coarse aggregate proportions. The stone-on-stone interlock in SMA makes it superior rut resistant mix and favorable in adverse conditions. The usage of conventional fillers in SMA will lead to the creation of many environmental nuisances and entail additional cost during the production. The use of industrial by-products in the place of the conventional filler can be proven favorable to overcome enhanced production cost of SMA. In the present research work, one such largely produced industrial waste called, Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SBA) is used as a filler in SMA by replacing conventional Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) filler, and the engineering performances and cost effectiveness is examined. The SMA mixes were cast with 6.25% optimum binder content are varied with SBA of 2.5% (ACS1), 5.0% (ACS2), 7.5% (ACS3) and 10% (ACS4) by weight of the mix as filler and the results were compared with conventional SMA mix (ACS0). The results showed that, the inclusion of SBA demonstrated superior performances indicating the enhanced stiffness of mix (in terms of Marshall and flow characteristics). Moisture resistance of the SMA mix was improved up to 7.5% SBA replace-ment. Further, the drain-down test results revealed that, SBA can be effectively used as stabilizing agent. The mix ACS 1 and ACS2 shown a minimum rut depth in reference with ACS0. The mix with 5% SBA resists more number of repetitive loads than all the mix tested.