Using oil palm shell aggregate (OPSagg) for flexible pavements

This paper presents the study of Oil Palm Shell Aggregate (OPSagg) substitution to the Course Aggregate for flexible pavement mixture. In this research, the coarse aggregate in the Porous Asphalt and Hot Rolled Sheet-Wearing Coarse (HRS-WC) mixture were substituted by OPSagg. OPSagg is the waste product from Palm Oil mill production that abundantly produces. The use of these waste materials in pavement construction would contribute towards a cleaner environment. Stability, flow, dynamic stability and deformation due to rutting were investigated by Marshall Test and Wheel Tracking Test. Laboratory investigations show encouraging results and it can be summarized that OPSagg has good potential as a coarse aggregate substitution of road pavement structure. The stability of OPSagg pavement mixture range from 5 kN to 10 kN satisfies the Marshall Stability requirement of asphalt mixture and the Marshall Flow in the range of 3 mm to 6 mm. For wheel tracking test, the dynamic stability as well as rutting of HRS-WC show a better result than Porous Asphalt. The substitution of 30% of OPSagg in HRS-WC is 2217.65 kN and 0.200 mm for dynamic stability and rutting respectively. Moreover, for the same proportion of OPSagg substitution for coarse aggregate in the Porous Asphalt is 475.03 kN and 0.0964 mm for dynamic stability and rutting respectively. Thus, the Marshall Test for these two types of asphalt, i.e HRS-WC and Porous Asphalt show a better result. The Marshall Stability of OPSagg mixed with Porous Asphalt is slightly higher than HRS-WC. However, the dynamic stability, and Resistance Deformation values for HRS-WC are much higher than Porous Asphalt. Thus, it can be summarised that OPSagg has good potential as a coarse aggregate for HRS-WC than Porous Asphalt.