The Master’s thesis by researcher Sarah Nabil Kadhim was defended at the Department of Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Basrah, under the supervision of Dr. Imad obeid baji The thesis is titled... Prediction modeling and improvement the mechanical properties of recycling waste polymers with asphalt composite materials

This Master’s thesis investigated the use of recycled waste tire rubber in asphalt mixtures as a sustainable approach to waste utilization, with particular emphasis on the combined effects of rubber content and aggregate gradation on the mechanical and thermal properties of asphalt mixtures. A total of 25 asphalt mixtures with different proportions of recycled waste tire rubber, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, and sand were prepared and experimentally evaluated using Marshall Stability, Flow, and Thermal Conductivity tests.
In addition, an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was implemented using MATLAB to develop three independent prediction cases for the investigated properties. The developed cases demonstrated strong agreement between the experimental and predicted results, achieving overall correlation coefficients (R) of 0.9986 for Marshall Stability, 0.9924 for Flow, and 0.9989 for Thermal Conductivity. The findings showed that both recycled waste tire rubber content and aggregate gradation influenced the investigated properties. The study demonstrates the potential of integrating experimental testing with artificial-intelligence-based prediction to evaluate asphalt-mixture performance within the investigated range and supports the sustainable utilization of recycled tire rubber in asphalt applications.