Characterisation and Prediction of Softening point and penetration value of Ceramic waste-based Asphalt incorporated with Sasobit and Wetfix B.E for Nigeria Roads

This study focusses on the evaluation of mechanical properties of Ceramic waste-based Modified Bitumen Asphalt (MBA) incorporated with Sasobit and Wetfix B.E with prediction of its Softening point (SP) and Penetration value with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The research utilized Ceramics Waste Aggregate (CWA), Sasobit (SB) and Wetfix BE (WB) as modifiers in the development of MBA with natural coarse aggregate replaced with CWA (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%), bitumen modified with SB and WB (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0%), to produce asphalt (MBA0, MBA10, MBA20, MBA30, MBA40, MBA50 and MBA60) and a designed asphalt mix of 4.0 mm flow employed in accordance with MS-2 guidelines. The Marshall Stability (MS), Softening Point (SP) and Penetration Value (PV) of MBA were the major parameters measured. The SP and PV were modelled with ANN as the target values of MBA. The obtained results indicated highest MS value of 6.54±2.70 for MBA50 and 6.30±1.1 for the control sample (MBA0). Optimum SP of 62.0 oC representing 114.8% of SP equivalent were obtained for MBA60. Highest PV of 61.90±1.2 Pen was obtained for MBA0, while MBA10 has PV of 56±2.1Pen. The adopted model adequately predicted the PV and SP properties of MBA (R2 : 0.97-0.99; MSE: 0.8-1.2). Conclusively, CWA, SB and WB incorporation in MBA improved the strength and durability properties which also enhanced its performance against the traffic loading.