Viscosity of plasticized sulfur-extended asphalt: two-factor sequential optimization

Abstract

The compounding properties of construction materials for pavements strongly depend on dynamic viscosity of the binder. The favorable class of binder is plasticized sulfur-extended asphalt. Unfortunately, the viscosity of such a binder has not been studied in detail. In the present work we have performed experimental two-factor sequential constrained optimization of the viscosity. The binders under examination were made of asphalt, sulfur and paraffin. It was revealed that the addition of sulfur and paraffin leads to a significant decrease of the dynamic viscosity. The obtained results allowed us to estimate mixture and temperature that correspond to optimal compounding properties of the sulfur-extended asphalt concrete. In particular, for plasticized asphalt concrete with 30% of sulfur and 5% of paraffin, the optimal processing temperature is 25 °C lower than for ordinary asphalt. Since low preparation temperatures correspond to low emission of toxic gases and low processing costs, we can consider the concretes that will be based on plasticized sulfur-extended asphalt as green paving materials.