Pilot Scale Plant Fabrication for Plastic Coated Aggregate-Based Road Making Material

The problem with waste plastic is that it decomposes after hundreds of years which causes its accumulation on the land. The waste plastic is used in the production of Polymer-Coated Aggregate (PCA) material that is eventually used in the construction of commercial roads. The roads made from PCA material are more efficient and are of greater strength as compared to normal roads. Through previous extensive experimental work, it is concluded that the addition of 12% of plastic in the total mixture provides the optimum results. The chosen process for the research to make PCA is the dry process, which follows by heating the aggregate stone to a certain temperature and on the other hand melting the PCA and coating over the aggregate. This research is mainly based on the fabrication of a machine that eventually produces PCA. The process of production of PCA material includes pre-heating of crushed aggregate, shredding of plastics, melting and coating of plastics, heating bitumen, adding hot molten bitumen, and uniform mixing. The aggregate tests began with each batch sample from the machine to validate the working and product quality of the fabricated mixer. The mean of Marshall stability value, flow value, and % air void are 2651.893kN, 17, and 2.642% respectively. Whereas the mean aggregate crushing and impact value obtained is 9.778 and 7.627. The mean value of specific gravity obtained is 2.569. The produced PCA material has a low water absorption capability is 0.573. The Los Angeles abrasion test, 9.652 is the mean abrasion value observed. The mean value of the stripping test obtained is 0.197%, which shows that there is almost negligible stripping of bitumen from the surface of PCA.  It can be concluded that the fabricated rotary mixer gives us an adequate PCA product with suitable enhancement of binding properties for the pavement of roads.