Equipment desing automation at asphalt-concrete production modernization

Abstract

The relevant task in the field of road construction and maintenance is gradual transition to the production of asphalt-concrete mixtures on polymer-bitumen binders. Most asphalt-concrete plants of small and medium capacity consider this transition as challenging due to a relatively high cost of the specialized equipment for polymer-bitumen binders production. Most proposed techniques involve the utilization of colloid mills. The practice of such mills operation shows that production lines experience long downtime periods due to the necessity of preventive maintenance and repair. A promising direction in polymer-bitumen binders manufacture is to use polymer waste materials for the bitumen modification. This provides the reduction of the modified binder costs and the solution of environmental problems. The paper deals with the problem of asphalt-concrete plants modernization to obtain polymer-bitumen binders in its own production using agitated mixers common in the chemical industry. Optimization problem is formulated for design and operating parameters of such equipment to provide required quality indicators for the resulting polymer-bitumen binders. Algorithmic and software assistance is developed to solve the set problem. The proposed technical solutions were tested when solving the modernization problems regarding the process diagram of the asphalt-concrete plant to release products on polymer-bitumen binder of its own production.