Slide 1

Starting with the name of Allah the most beneficent an the most merciful.

Starting with “In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

AOA Everyone

I’m Muhamad Aadil Today we are gathered here for my master thesis presentation of masters in
transportation engineering.

And the topic of my presentation is LABORATORY INVESTIGATION OF CRUMB

RUBBER MODIFIED ASPHALT MIXTURES USING DYNAMIC MODULUS TEST

This research is supervised by Brig Dr Muhammad irfan and committee members Brig Dr
Sarfraz Ahmed and Dr Inamullah khan.

Slide 2

Stating with the presentation I will start with the brief introduction of myself – I have done BSc
Civil engineering from Cecos University Peshawar and MS CGPA is 3.69. My professional
experience includes one year experience at creative engineering consultant as Site Inspector.

Slide 3

Moving on I will start with the Presentation Sequence: First we will discuss introduction.

In introduction we will discuss importance of roads, problem statement, and how we are going to
address the problem.

Next, we are going to outline the objective, literature review,

Moving on we will see the methodology that is related to this research

Major portion of research includes results and analysis and further we will check the conclusions

Slide 5

Now starting with the introduction first we need to know importance of roads.
Transportation infrastructure is a function of economic growth of a country because it provides
trade and investment opportunities that subsequently improve quality of life and the roads also
provide movements of peoples and goods.

What are the Problems associated with the roads (1, 2, 3, 4 ,5)

These are the main problem associated with roads in our country.

In this research we will address the problem first by Use of Crumb rubber modified binder and

Secondly Dynamic Modulus as a performance indicator and input in mechanistic empirical

pavement design

Empirical approach is one is based on experiment. Mechanistic empirical is based on the

mechanics of material that relate inputs i.e., wheel loads to an output or pavement response i.e.,
stresses, strains, and deflections in pavement structure.

Slide 6

Crumb rubber is prepared by shredding and grinding of waste tires.

CR is Environmentally feasible

It is used for modification of asphalt by mixing with binder

Reduces Rutting because it is Resistance against temperature

Slide 10

Literature Review

Now we need to discuss literature review caried out on crumb rubber modified bitumen

Highlights from studies are presented below

First study was conducted by Yang et al in 2021 on CRM HMA.

Dynamic modulus and DSR test were conducted.

Rutting and fatigue resistance was checked for DM CRMB

Next research was carried out by Dong et al in 2012.

His research based on CRM HMA with NMAS of 13.2 mm

Dynamic modulus test, Wheel rutting test, Indirect tensile test was conducted.

Rutting and fatigue resistance was checked for CRMB

Next research was carried out by Kaloush et al in 2003.

His research based on CRM HMA with NMAS of 19.0 & 9.0 mm

Dynamic modulus test was conducted.

Rutting and fatigue resistance was checked for CRMB

Next research was carried out by Irfan et al in 2017

His research based on CRM HMA with NMAS of 19.0 mm

Resilient Modulus, Indirect Tensile Strength, Hamburg Wheel Tracking test was conducted.

Rutting resistance was checked for CRMB

Next research was carried out by Ali et al in 2016

His research based on Conventional HMA with NMAS varied

Dynamic Modulus Test was conducted.

Rutting resistance was checked for CRMB

indirect tensile strength test (the primary test carried out to characterize the stiffness of a
bituminous mixture), wheel tracking important tool to define asphalt mixture rutting
performance

Slide 12
Research Methodology

Next, we are going to check the methodology adopted for this research

First of all we will select material used for this research.

ARL pen 60/70 binder, Limestone Aggregate from Babozai, Crumb Rubber (0, 4%, 6%, 8%,
10%, & 12%) acquired from Sheikh enterprises available in laboratory.

After selection of materials, we need to select gradation which is NHA class B.

Next, after preparation of mix it was compacted with Marshall compactor to find the optimum
binder content from that we prepare marshal specimens of 4” Dia and 75 blows on each side.

Marshal mix design was conducted at 4% air voids and VMA≥13

Performance parameters stability and flow were checked and Volumetric parameters AV,
VMA, VFA were also checked.

Next, we will prepare the specimens using gyratory compactor with same OBC. Specimens
with height of 6” Dia, Nd =125, AV =4%

Performance Testing was done which is dynamic modulus.

Master curves were developed, and statistical analysis were performed using Minitab SPSS,
Master Solver, MATLAB.

And then Results and analysis is performed.

Slide 13

Gradation adopted for Testing is NHA Class B which is shown here.

This is the 0.45 Gradation Chart.

The Blue line shows the Selected gradation in this research

The red line shows the lower limit, and the purple line shows upper limit

Marshal Parameters at Optimum Bitumen Content (OBC) is presented here

OBC is 4.3 % at 4% air voids VMA is 15.15% VFA is 72 % Stability is 10.34 kN and flow is
2.72mm which are all in the range according to standards

Slide 15

Following are the Test performed on binder which includes (Penetration, softening point flash
and fire point) all the values are within the range. With the addition of crumb rubber %
Penetration values decreases and softening point values increases. Flash and Fire point are within
min specified limit.

Following are the Test performed on Aggregates all the values are within the range according to
the standards

Slide 16

Master curves are developed through master solver in excel which was developed under
NCHRP project 9-29. This excel sheet uses the sigmoidal function to develop master curves. The
dynamic moduli are obtained which is combined using time-temperature superposition principle
and single curve is generated known as master curve.
This function captures the physical variation of mix for a range of temperature. At lower
temperatures, mixture’s stiffness is governed by binder stiffness while at higher temperature.
mixture’s stiffness is indicated by the aggregate interlocking.
The master curve for wearing course mixes is presented in figure here. From this graph, it is
evident that dynamic modulus is higher for higher frequency and lower temperatures.
Furthermore, this figure indicated that all curves of mixtures are merged to one and no variation
is observed at higher and lower frequency. The graph shows that the 8% CRMB mix has the
highest dynamic modulus values at all frequencies. This indicates that the dynamic modulus test
is sensitive to variation in the mix volumetric properties and CR%.
The master curve development for HMA mixes for pavements will help in implementation of
new design procedure i-e M-E approach in Pakistan.

Reduced frequency  fr can  be  calculated  as  ratio  of  actual  frequency to  shift  factor.
Shift factor is the ratio of  time of loading at desired temperature to
reduced time of loading at reference temperature.
Slide 17

Design of Experiment
Two-level factorial design of experiment was conducted in order to determine the significant
factors affecting the dynamic modulus and phase angle. In this experiment, each parameter is
specified by two levels: high and low. The factors considered for both types of mixes are
temperature, frequency, and CR.

Slide 18

The confidence level for experiment was taken as 95 % (significance level, α = 0.05). The
negative and positive sign with effect shows that the factor is inversely and directly related with
dynamic modulus (response), respectively whereas the numerical value of effect displays the
strength of effect. The significance of effects or otherwise can be assessed by p value less than or
greater than α = 0.05, respectively.

In this case, the temperature, frequency, CR and two-way interactions of temp*freq and
temp*CR are significance while Remaining interactions are insignificant.

ANOVA for Dynamic Modulus

DF (03) which means there are three parameters explaining the variation of dynamic modulus.

F is greater than 10 means factor is significant

F: Ratio of explained variation to unexplained variation

Sum of Sq:

Mean Sum of Sq:

The main effect: is difference in the mean response between low and high level of a factor,
while interaction effect: is mean difference between effect of one factor at extreme values i–e
high- and low-level values of other.

Slide 19
Slide 20

The confidence level for experiment was taken as 95 % (significance level, α = 0.05). The
negative and positive sign with effect shows that the factor is inversely and directly related with
dynamic modulus, whereas the numerical value of effect displays the strength of effect. The
significance of effects or otherwise can be assessed by p value less than or greater than α = 0.05,
respectively.

In this case, the temperature, frequency, CR and two-way interactions of temp*freq are
significance while Remaining interactions are insignificant.

ANOVA for Dynamic Modulus

DF (03) which means there are three parameters explaining the variation of dynamic modulus.

F is greater than 10 means factor is significant

F: Ratio of explained variation to unexplained variation

Sum of Sq:

Mean Sum of Sq:

The main effect: is difference in the mean response between low and high level of a factor,
while interaction effect: is mean difference between effect of one factor at extreme values i–e
high- and low-level values of other.

Slide 23

This study also developed the statistical model for prediction of dynamic modulus values as a
function of factors like frequency, temperature and CR%.

The coefficient of determination, R2 is 72.4 for the developed models which indicates that 72.4
variation in dynamic modulus values is captured by the variability of the independent variables.

Slide 24
Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are inspired by the human brain, mimicking the way that
biological neurons signal to one another. Takes inputs, recognize the pattern, and predict the new
collection of similar data (output).

Uses three different algorithms:

Levenberg Marquardt back propagation (LM) – fast and accurate.

Bayesian Regularization (BR) – takes longer time/ challenging problems.

Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) – suitable in low memory situation.

70% of the developed experimental database was used for the training the models.

Remining 30 % was used for validation and testing of model.

Slide 25

First of all.

Then,

next step,

Moving forward

Slide 26

In this study, various percentages of CR (0–12%), temperature range of (4.4-54.4°C), and

frequency range of (0.1 to 25Hz) were selected as input parameters for ANN. The ANN was
successfully applied to predict the Dynamic Modulus of Crumb Rubber modified bitumen
mixtures.

Slide 27

The statistical correlations and errors support the close agreement of experimental and predicted
values. A correlation coefficient R for (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data) is 0.993,
0.994 and 0.993 was observed for dynamic modulus which is shows that the model strong.
In case of errors, illustrated in Fig, MAE for (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data) is
796.98, 772.34, and 784.72 for dynamic modulus model which shows close agreement b/w Exp
and predicted data.

RMSE for (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data) is 1206.8, 1078.9, and 1125.5 for
dynamic modulus model which shows close agreement b/w Exp and predicted data.

The slope of the regression line achieved from the experimental versus predicted results was
used to evaluate the agreement of results. It can be seen from Fig on the right side that the slope
of the regression line for dynamic modulus model (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data)
is 0.985, 0.993 and 1.001 which is almost similar to the ideal fitted line (slope = 1), representing
a strong agreement between experimental and predicted results.

Slide 28

The statistical correlations and errors support the close agreement of experimental and predicted
values. A correlation coefficient R for (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data) is 0.998,
0.982 and 0.987 was observed for Phase Angle which is shows that the model is strongly
correlated. In case of errors, illustrated in Fig, MAE for (Training Data, Validation Data and
Test data) is 1.32, 1.70, and 1.42 for phase angle model which shows close agreement b/w Exp
and predicted data.

RMSE for (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data) is 1206.8, 1078.9, and 1125.5 for
dynamic modulus model which shows close agreement b/w Exp and predicted data.

The slope of the regression line achieved from the experimental versus predicted results was
used to evaluate the agreement of results. It can be seen from Fig on the right side that the slope
of the regression line for Phase angle model (Training Data, Validation Data and Test data) is
0.981, 0.959 and 0.996 which is almost similar to the ideal fitted line (slope = 1), representing a
strong agreement between experimental and predicted results.

Slide 30

Conclusions drawn from the study:

Dynamic Modulus of the CRMB mixtures showed peak response at 8 % CR modification across
all combinations of temperature and frequency sweeps. Addition of 8 % CR to CRMB translated
in an average increase of 75.53 % for dynamic modulus values which signifies stiffness potential
of rut resistant mix.

Master Curves developed at reference temperature of 21.1° C illustrate that 8 % CR modified

Bitumen showed best performance and was more rut resistant as compared to other mixtures.

Two level Factorial Design illustrates that temperature, frequency, and CR percentage are all
significant variables for Dynamic modulus as well as Phase angle.

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique was also employed to predict the dynamic modulus
of CR modified mixtures which captured 99% of the variance in the tested data – a significant
improvement as compared to non-linear regression model.

Industry readiness or applicability:

CRMB is suitable for high temperatures and heavily trafficked areas

CRMB provides improved performance as compared to conventional mix

CRMB defers the need for Maintenance and Rehabilitation in the life cycle of pavement thus
making it cost effective.