The Effect of Resins on Rheological and ageing Characteristics of Bitumen for Pavement

Abstract

Bitumen consists of thousands of hydrocarbon molecule types with each molecule contributes to the overall bitumen characteristics. Therefore, it is important to identify the influence of each chemical component of bitumen that altogether constructs the bitumen characteristics. This is likely to be completed by evaluating and modifying bitumen components to produce a new type of bitumen with better characteristics. The realistic way to do this is by analysing it in groups or fractions; one group or fraction comprises bitumen molecules with similar characteristics. This paper aims to address this issue by describing the effect of resins on rheological characteristics of bitumen at various ageing process stages. The materials used in this study were Buton rock asphalt or natural rock asphalt from Buton Island in Indonesia which was from Lawele region and petroleum bitumen penetration grade 80/100 from a refinery in Kemaman Malaysia. The materials were tested to identify their charactheristics and the resins components were also extracted and tested with Corbett method. Each extracted resin (from Buton rock asphalt bitumen and petroleum bitumen) was blended in proportions of 0%, 5%, and 10% with the Kemaman petroleum bitumen as a bitumen medium. The blended bitumen samples were also tested for their rheological characteristics using Dynamic Shear Rheometer. Each sample was tested at five different temperature levels (46°C, 52°C, 58°C, 64°C and 70°C) and at un-aged, artificial short-term aged (RTFOT-aged), and artificial long-term aged (PAV-aged) conditions. The results indicated that the source of resins had a significant value of 0.065 or larger than the 0.05 critical point value. There was no difference in the effect of the experiments using either Buton rock asphalt or petroleum bitumen on the complex shear modulus G*. At fresh condition, there was no effect of adding resins on the bitumen rheological characteristics except for the elastic modulus (G’). However, the effect increased over the RTFOT-ageing and PAV-aging level because of the normal ageing process.