Experimental Research on the effect of Structural glass fibre in the Tensile Strength Ratio and Retained Stability of VG40 Bituminous mix

Abstract The tensile characteristics of bituminous mix are a major concern for pavement engineers due to the cracking issues. The cracking infuses moisture into the pavement layers which affects the stability of the pavement. The measures to reduce the fatigue tensile cracks have to be taken in the design stage rather than the maintenance stage. The tensile properties and the stability are evaluated using the indirect tensile strength and retained stability tests. While fibers improve the tensile properties of pavement, the S-glass fiber possessing superior mechanical strength has been found to have less scope in past studies. Thus, the current study primarily focuses on examining how Structural Glass fiber reinforced in VG-40 bituminous concrete mix improves the tensile and moisture susceptibility characteristics. The Marshall technique of bituminous mix design was used to establish the ideal bitumen content for casting the bituminous concrete specimens. At the ideal bitumen content, the attributes of bituminous mixes were established. Tensile strength ratio (TSR), Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS), and Retained Stability of modified bituminous concrete mix were assessed. It is observed that the bituminous mix prepared by adding the S-Glass fibre of 8mm length by 3% weight of aggregates exhibited higher ITS, TSR, and Retained stability. The bituminous mix with glass fiber incorporated had higher retained stability (95.36%) than the conventional mix (91.17%). The results of the Indirect Tensile Strength Test revealed that the mix with glass fiber added had a higher Tensile Strength Ratio (92%) compared to the mix with conventional fiber (87%). A noteworthy outcome that creates opportunities for more study in this field is the rise of 5% TSR and 4.66% maintained the stability of the glass fiber-modified bituminous mix.