RESEARCH PROPOSAL

NAME – ASHISH SHARMA

MTECH UNIVERSITY – IIEST SHIBPUR
ENROLLMENT ID - 320419052

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A LABORATORY INVESTIGATION ON STONE MATRIX
ASPHALT USING NATURAL BAMBOO FIBER AS AN
ADDITIVE

SOURCE – INTERNET
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 PROBLEM STATEMENT

In recent years, with a formidable rise in traffic volume and heavy vehicle traffic loading, asphalt

pavements suffer from significant challenges like rutting and increased maintenance expenditure,
resulting in a reduction in pavement service life.[9]

For a durable wearing course in flexible pavements (Traffic level >50 MSA), Stone Matrix Asphalt
(SMA) mixtures are widely used.[2]

But the main problem of the stone matrix asphalt (SMA) mixture is binder drain down during mixing,
transport, and compaction.[5]
Drain down happens when a portion of the mixture fines and bitumen separates itself from the sample

as a whole and flows downward through the mixture.
To avoid this, binder modification (addition of natural fibers) helps mitigate the rutting/ cracking and

improves the pavement service life.[8]

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 RESEARCH GAP
Stabilizing additive must be used to hold the binder in SMA mixture at high temperature
during - Mixing, Transportation, and Placement operations.[9]

Natural fibers such as sisal, jute, lignin, banana, and coir fibers are commonly used to
prevent unacceptable drain down.[8]

 The said fibers are less expensive and eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic fibers and can
be efficiently used to stabilize and reinforce additives in asphalt mixture.[3]

The bamboo fiber being a new member in the natural fiber list, I want to utilize the same
towards sustainable asphalt mixture in my study. [8]

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 WHY BAMBOO FIBER ?

India is at 2nd in bamboo diversity after China, with around 13.96 million hectares under
bamboo. [7]

Bamboo can be utilized as building components such as pole, beam, wall, ceiling, roofing,
doors, bottles, biofuel, musical industry, textile industry, bamboo-craft products. [7]

But formation/manufacturing of the above-said products doesn’t utilize the entire stem section
resulting in solid waste.

Bamboo fiber, which is cellulose fiber ( 43%) extracted from the naturally available bamboo
stem, is a new natural fiber member. It has high tensile strength in the fiber direction, and it is
durable in nature with low manufacture cost. [5] 5

Limited studies were found on using bamboo fiber as road materials in the asphalt mix.
 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

To determine the optimum bitumen content (OBC) and optimum fiber content
(OFC) using the Marshall mix design method.
To evaluate the effect of bamboo fiber on mixture rutting and low-temperature
cracking performance.
To determine the applicability of bamboo fiber by comparing with the mixtures
containing no fiber and commonly used coir and banana fiber.
To carry out and compare the economic aspect of bamboo fiber with conventional
fibers.
 
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 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

To design the SMA mix following the Marshall method for OBC and OFC.
To conduct a Drain down test and Indirect Tensile strength test.
To carry out the wheel tracking test to determine the effect of bamboo fiber on mixture
rutting and low-temperature cracking performance.
To compare the mixtures with no-fiber, banana, and coir as controls and their testing
results with those obtained from mixtures with bamboo fiber.

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 Flow Chart for Proposed Methodology
Study on SMA using Natural Bamboo Fiber

Assessment of physical properties of

Preparation of bamboo fiber
prerequisite materials

Preparation of SMA mixture with different bitumen content

and fiber content following MORTH-V Revision

Calculation of OBC and OFC of SMA

sample

Preparation of SMA sample at OBC and OFC value

Characterization of SMA mix from various performance Test
 Marshall Stability and Flow Test Indirect Tensile Strength Test
 Drain Down test Moisture Test ( Tensile Strength Ratio)
 Cantabro Loss Test
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 Experimental Set-Up

1. Marshall Test Apparatus 2. Drain Down Basket 3. Bamboo Fiber

SOURCE 1[INTERNET], 2 [1], 3 [5]

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 EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The addition of bamboo fiber in SMA may result in overcoming rutting, drain-down, and
low-temperature cracking.
The study will help find the applicability of bamboo fiber by comparing it with the
mixtures containing commonly used coir and banana fiber.

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 REFERENCES

1. Asphalt Institute, Mix design methods for asphalt concrete and other hot-mix types, manual series No. 2 (MS-2) 7th ed, 2014.
2. IRC:37 (2018). “Guidelines for the design of flexible pavements.” Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi, India.
3. Kumar, N.L.N. A., Ravitheja, A. (2019). “Characteristics of Stone Matrix Asphalt by Using Natural Fiber as Additives.”
Materials Today : Proceedings., 19 (2), 397-402.
4. Martin, T.C. (2002). “Estimating heavy vehicle road wear costs for bituminous-surfaced arterial roads.” J. Transp. Eng., 128(2),
103-110.
5. Masri, K.A., Fatin, N.Y.N., Chin, S.C., et al., (2021). “Utilization of Bamboo Fiber towards sustainable asphalt mixture.” Int.
Conf. of Sustainable Earth Resources Eng. 2020, IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science., 641 012002.
6. MORTH (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways). (2013). “Specifications or road and bridge works.” Indian Roads
Congress, New Delhi, India.
7. NBM (National Bamboo Mission). (2019). “Operational Guidelines for National Bamboo Mission.”
8. Sheng, P., Zhang, B., et al., (2019). “Laboratory Investigation on the Use of Bamboo Fiber in Asphalt Mixtures for Enhanced
Performance.” Arabian J. for Sci. and Eng., 44, 4629-4638.
9. Vale, A.C. D., Casagrande, M.D.T., and Soares, J.B.S., (2014). “Behavior of Natural Fiber in Stone Matrix Asphalt Mixtures
Using Two Design Methods.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 26 (3): 457-465.
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