COMPARISON BETWEEN ZERO SHEAR VISCOSITY AND STEADY SHEAR FLOW METHODS TO DETERMINE MIXING AND COMPACTION TEMPERATURES OF PMB

Year 2019, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 1 - 8, 01.12.2019

Ali ALMUSAWI

Abstract

In order to
obtain a better performance, different modifiers types have been adopted to
complement the rheological characteristics of the bitumen used in the asphalt
road construction. To bring the asphalt mixture to the desired workability,
bitumen and aggregate must be heated at an elevated temperature before mixing.
Thus, estimating mixing and compaction temperatures is necessary to achieve the
required performance. The equiviscous method (ASTM D 2493) has been developed
through the bitumen viscosity measurement to calculate the required mixing and
compaction temperatures. But a problem with excessive temperatures resulted
through the implementation of this method when it is applied for the modified
bitumen. Insufficiency of the equiviscous method led to a necessary need to
investigate for an alternative method which should be more applicable for the
modified bitumen. In this study, two methods named Zero Shear Viscosity (ZSV)
and Steady Shear Flow (SSF) have been examined to measure the applicability for
the modified bitumen. For this purpose, 50/70 bitumen grade was modified with
5% elastomeric type – Styrene Butadiene Styrene (SBS), and 1.5 % Reactive
Elastomeric Terpolymer type – Elvaloy (RET). The results have shown that the
application of the new alternative methods resulted in lower mixing and
compaction temperatures for the modified bitumen.

 

Keywords

Compaction, Mixing, Modified bitumen, Steady Shear Flow, Zero Shear Viscosity

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