Physical Properties of Nanomodified Asphalt Binder

Abstract

Nanomaterials have been widely used around the world for many purposes. This paper details the effect of nanomaterials in improving the physical properties of asphalt binder. Nanosilica (NS) was used to modify base asphalt binder with concentration 1–5 % (increment 1 %) by weight of binder. A series of physical properties test were performed to analyze the performance of nanosilica-modified asphalt binder (NSMB) such as softening point test, penetration test, and viscosity. It observed that the addition of NS increased the softening point and viscosity value while, the penetration value is decreased. These results indicate that NS improved the performance of physical properties of asphalt binder. Penetration index (PI) and penetration viscosity number (PVN) were determined to evaluate temperature susceptibility of binder. It was concluded that the addition of NS to asphalt binder can improve the temperature susceptibility of asphalt binder. Besides that, it was found 4 % of NS have excellent performance and this indicates that 4 % of NS is the optimum concentration for base asphalt binder.