CRISPS Webinar: Fibre Mastic Asphalt Technology – A Novel Material for More Resilient Roads

The International Road Federation, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham (UoB), the University of Auckland (UoA) and the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), is pleased to present the 2nd CRISPS Webinar with the theme “Fibre Mastic Asphalt Technology – A Novel Material for More Resilient Roads”.

Certain types of flexible road pavement can suffer fatigue damage either due to overloading, poor construction or inadequate drainage. Such damage can result in fatigue cracking and rutting leading to the formation of potholes and unacceptable levels of road roughness. This necessitates increased maintenance and road use costs. An innovative Fibre Mastic Asphalt (FMA) technology has been developed at the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) over the last 25 years to address these issues on Malaysia’s roads. The main ingredient of FMA, cellulose fibre, is produced from the empty fruit bunch of oil pam trees. The selective combination of the fibre and the tailored aggregate gradation have been shown to provide a superior technology for road construction.

Research at UPM on the use of cellulose oil palm fibre showed that the inclusion of palm fibre in asphalt enhanced the quality of flexible road pavement through micro reinforcement. An assessment of in-service roads constructed using FMA has shown an increase in strength,  less fatigue cracking, rutting and lower levels of road roughness and consequential lower road use costs, compared to those constructed from conventional asphalt. As a result, the lifespan of the FMA based road pavements are up to 10 years greater than those constructed from conventional materials.

Programme:

Welcome and greeting		Susanna Zammataro (IRF)
Introduction to CRISPS		Gurmel S Ghataora (UoB)
Fibre Mastic Asphalt Technology		Ratnasamy Muniandy (UPM)
Q&A and discussion