Experimental Investigations on Coir Fibre Reinforced Bituminous Mixes

The development of transportation plays an important role in the development of nation. With flexible pavements being widely used in India, steps must be taken to increase the life of the bituminous pavements. Flexible pavements are often plagued with problems of cracking and rutting due to repeated traffic loads. Hence one needs to address these problems in order to improve the performance of flexible pavements. The project studies the suitability of coir as a reinforcing material in bituminous mixes. Marshall method of mix design was adopted for the mixes and the optimum bitumen content, fibre content and fibre length are determined for coir fibre reinforced bituminous mixes and their performance is analysed. An optimum bitumen content of 5%, optimum fibre content of 0.46% and fibre length of 17.25 mm was obtained after analysis. On studying the Marshall parameters, it is found that the addition of coir fibre to semi dense bituminous concrete mix contributes significantly in improving the performance of the mix.