Bitumen Mixtures Research Articles

Durable poroelastic wearing course SEPOR with highly modified bitumen

International development of poroelastic pavements is still in the experimental stage. Insufficient durability is one of the most important issues to be solved. Currently, poroelastic road surface is typically composed of crushed stone aggregate, rubber (about 20% by weight) and polyurethane binder. Highly modified asphalt binders (HiMA), a relatively new product on the market, differ significantly in terms of mechanical properties when compared to neat bitumen, typical modified asphalt binders and even polyurethane binders. This paper presents first results obtained during initial stage of SEPOR research programme, which aim is to develop durable poroelastic wearing course based on selected bitumen binders and mixture compositions. Observations of the first short road sections constructed with different compositions of poroelastic SEPOR mixtures yielded promising results.

Nanoparticle in Asphalt Binder: A State-of-The-Art Review

Increasing traffic volumes and the rising cost of bitumen making it necessary to improve the performance of asphalt binder through bitumen modification. Various types of modifiers have been employed as bitumen binders in order to improve the bitumen mixture, particularly with regard to its resistance to aging, cracks due to fatigue and thermal conditions, moisture-induced damage and permanent deformation. This review study summarizes the performance of nanoparticles as an asphalt modifier. Several relevant literatures were reviewed, which related to the matter associated with nanomaterials such as nano-silica, carbon nano-tubes and nano-titanium dioxide. Recent studies showed that the utilisation of nanoparticle gave great benefits in many ways.For instance, nano kaolin as a mineral clay promises non-hazardous effects to road users. This can result in a healthy environment and help towards increasing the application of green technology road construction.

Formulation of Emulsified Modification Bitumen from Industrial Wastes

The aim of this research was to characterize and analyze the formulation of emulsified modification bitumen (EMB) as well as the industrial wastes used in the formulation. Bitumen being a non-renewable product with severe environmental issues arising lately led to the use of industrial wastes such as plastic and recycled base oil in this research. Physical characteristic studies were performed to analyze the decomposition temperature, boiling point, flash point, density, moisture content, element content in waste plastics, and flowability of bitumen emulsion. Eight ratios of modified bitumen were formulated and compared with the industrial grade bitumen. The modified bitumen with a penetration value of 103 mm and softening value at 49 °C was chosen for the emulsification process where three emulsifiers were added into the mixture of bitumen and water. These samples were compared with the industrial bitumen emulsion. From the analysis, the formulated emulsion was obtained from a mixture consists of 20% bitumen, 7% polymer, and 73% recycled base oil.

Study of Phase Transitions in n-Tricosane/Bitumen Aqueous Dispersions by the Optical Method

The paper presents the results of studies of phase transitions in the mixture of n-alkane C23H48 (n-tricosane) and natural bitumen at various concentrations of components. The initial samples of n-...

Prediction of viscosity measurement for light n-alkanes and bitumen mixtures: application to bitumen recovery

Owning to the sensitivity of enhanced oil recovery process, the accurate approximation for the viscosity of n-alkane and bitumen mixture is important to decrease uncertainty. Current study highlights the application of a model based on least square support vector machine for prediction of viscosity of n-alkanes and bitumen systems. By applying LSSVM on data points and finding optimum parameters, the estimated values of viscosity were compared with experimental data which showed a reasonable agreement with the experimental results. Results demonstrate that the model is precise and the model shows an overall R2 and ARD% estimations of 0.9992 and 0.2841, respectively.

The Effect of Diffraction in the Degree of Bitumen Penetration on Asphalt Mixture Used for Surface Layer

Objectives: This research discuss the simulation of the bad bitumen which gives a penetration out of the specification limit and Study the effect of crumb rubber on the performance of asphalt mixture in case of low penetration grade and waste cooking oil in case of high penetration grade.
 Presentation of Case: Determination of the permissible limits of the diffraction in the degree of penetration for Suez Bitumen and Alexandria bitumen.
 Methodology: 14 asphalt mixtures are designed by using two types of bitumen (Alexandria bitumen and Suez bitumen). By using crumb rubber powder (C.R.P) with contents (6%, 8% and 10%) to decrease penetration for Alex bitumen by (59, 56 and 53) respectively. Then (-C.R.P-) was added with ratios (5%, 6.5% and 8%) to decrease penetration for Suez bitumen by (59, 56 and 53) respectively. after that waste cooking oil was added with different percentages (0.3%, 0.5% and 1%) for each bitumen type to increase penetration by (71, 74 and 77) respectively. Marshall Test was implemented for all asphalt mixtures to determine stability value and flow. The ITS Test was performed for all mixtures to determine tensile properties for mixtures.
 Results: The results were showed important conclusions for using bitumen with penetration grades (60/70) with increase or decrease in penetration by 7. 
 Conclusion: This study recommends using (C.R.P) with ratios (10% and 5%) from bitumen weight for Alex and Suez bitumen respectively for achieving 53, 59 penetration to obtain 29% increase of stability value and 23.64% for Alex and Suez bitumen mixture respectively.

Determination of Construction Temperatures of Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen Mixture Based on CRMB Mastic.

Crumb rubber modified bitumen (CRMB) has been widely used in pavement construction and provides an effective way to recycle waste tires and helps alleviate the “black pollution” problem. There are no current specifications regarding the appropriate mixing and compaction temperatures of the CRMB mixture. There is a direct relationship between the mixing and the compaction temperatures of the CRMB mixture and the viscosity of the CRMB mastic. In this study, we first prepared CRMB using crumb rubber powder and penetration grade 70 neat bitumen, then prepared the CRMB mastic using CRMB and fillers (limestone mineral powder and cement). Finally, we used the CRMB mastic and aggregate to make mixture specimens. The best air void of the specimens was subsequently used to demarcate the viscosity of the CRMB mastic, and the construction temperatures (including the mixing temperature and the compaction temperature) were calculated based on the viscosity of the CRMB mastic from the viscosity–temperature curves. Test results indicated that the best viscosity of the CRMB mastic was 2.7 ± 0.2 Pa·s and 3.9 ± 0.3 Pa·s that corresponded to the mixing and compaction temperatures, respectively.

Study of ignition of binding substances used in foundations of tanks

The reservoirs of tank farms and oil storages are structures of increased fire danger, the accidents in which lead to severe economic, environmental and social consequences.The article details the cause of tank fires during the repair work. One of the ignition causes is bitumen mastic, used for waterproofing foundations and walls of the tank. Increasing the autoignition temperature makes it possible to increase the fire safety of vertical steel tanks. For this purpose, work was done to add various binders to the bitumen mastic.The results of calculating the self-ignition temperature of bitumen and limestone mixture, the results of calculating the autoignition temperature of bitumen and pumice mixture, and the results of calculating the autoignition temperature bitumen and sodium salt mixture are presented. As a result of the estimation of the self-ignition temperature of bitumen with additives, the addition of limestone is the optimal way to reduce the fire hazard of waterproofing on the bitumen base of the foundation of vertical steel tanks for oil storage.To verify the reliability of the autoignition temperature values obtained by calculation, laboratory studies were carried out for a mixture of bitumen and limestone.

Environmental effects on the rheological properties of fine warm RAP-foamed bitumen mixtures using SATS conditioning protocol

ABSTRACT This paper uses the Saturation Ageing Tensile Stiffness (SATS) conditioning to evaluate the combined effects of moisture and oxidative ageing on the rheological characteristics of the Fine Aggregate Matrix (FAM) portion of various Foamed Bitumen Mixtures (FBMs) in combination with Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) material produced at 90, 120 and 160°C (i.e. half-warm, warm and hot processes, respectively). A reference fine Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) with RAP – no foamed bitumen – was also manufactured. Their rheological properties were determined through Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) tests on specimens tested in their unconditioned and after SATS conditioning states. Rheology of the recovered binders of all FAM mixes before and after SATS conditioning was also studied, and rheological parameters were used to link their long-term performance in terms of cracking susceptibility. The results showed an overall increase in the stiffness of the fine mixtures after the conditioning process, mainly due to oxidation of the bitumen. Although the half-warm and warm fine RAP-FBMs exhibited the highest increase in their complex shear modulus after SATS conditioning, rheological analysis of their corresponding binders indicated that their long-term performance in terms of cracking susceptibility might be superior to those of the hot RAP-FBM, and the HMA-RAP fine mixtures.

Analyzing the Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and Trace Metals in Tailings

In the process of producing bitumen from oil sand, a by-product called tailings is produced. Tailings are a mixture of clay, fine particles, water, solvent and residual bitumen. The industry’s current approach is to leave them in tailings ponds; however, that may cause environmental impacts to the ecosystems around them due in part to the toxic trace metals found in them. Research has shown that there are also valuable rare Earth elements (REEs) present in tailings. REEs found in tailings include Cerium, Neodymium, Lanthanum etc. Iron, Titanium, and Zirconium are not considered REEs but are still valuable enough to be extracted. The objective of this research was to determine the concentration of REEs and trace metals in bitumen froth treatment tailings (FTT). Our research team used acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) to measure the concentration of REEs and trace metals in several samples of FTT ash. We learned that Cerium was the most prevalent REE in tailings samples (>1000ppm), followed by Neodymium and Lanthanum. Zirconium was the most prevalent trace metal found in this tailings sample (>1000ppm), followed closely by Vanadium. Knowing the exact concentration of harmful trace metals in tailings will allow us to determine the extent of tailings ponds environmental effect and toxicity. Collecting and selling expensive metals found in tailings could be the start of a new precious metals economy in Alberta, which would provide new investment opportunities and jobs. This would also encourage corporations to invest in finding new ways to extract these precious metals, resulting in more purified tailings and less tailings overall going into tailings ponds.

A review of using Aggregate Coated Waste Polymer Blend with Bitumen for Pavement Construction

Over the years, plastics have become the chosen wrapping material by pro of their dominance over other conventional materials. Based on this many studies on polymer modified bitumen mixture have been conducted for the past three decades. Although addition of Waste polymers to asphalt for the purpose of enhancing the properties of asphalt over a wide temperature range in paving applications was contemplated quite some time ago, the result shows improving the road pavement performance as compared to the asphalt pavement. This paper is a review of using Aggregate Coated Waste Polymer Blend with Bitumen for Pavement Construction. In this study, a critical review on the benefits of using waste polymer blend in bitumen is presented followed by a review of general studies on using polymers in bitumen in order to improve the properties of pavement. Conversely, disposal of this waste material including waste plastic bags has become a serious problem and waste plastics are burnt for apparent disposal which cause environmental pollution. Additionally, this waste plastic bag in bituminous mixes has proved that which enhance the properties of mix solving in addition to, disposal problems. This study investigated A review of using Aggregate Coated Waste Polymer Blend with Bitumen for Pavement Construction are considered, not only as a progressive option in terms of sustainability, as an eye-catching option in improving the performance and amenity life of the pavement.

Low Temperature Study on the Behavior of Reinforced Bitumen in Asphalt via Addition of Synthesized Basalt

Abstract In traffic engineering, one of the problems presented by slate pavement, besides being costly to repair and maintain, is the insufficient resistance of bitumen against traffic loads in low temperatures. In this study, the effect of synthesized basalt modifier has been assessed via four different tests to improve bitumen performance. Hence, the enhancement of resistance to traffic loads at low temperatures as an essential problem of asphalt superstructure in traffic engineering has been taken into account. The bending beam rheometer test was conducted at three temperatures of −6°C, −12°C, and −18°C, and the softening point and permeability index tests were performed. A Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy test was carried out to identify the structure of the modifier additives. The prepared samples of synthetic basalt-reinforced foam bitumen and synthetic basalt bitumen were examined, each having three values of 2, 4, and 6 % of reinforcement agent. The results showed that the bitumen mixture including 6 % synthetic basalt has the lowest operating temperature compared with the base counterpart having the same resistance to traffic loads at low temperatures. In addition, the temperature sensitivity of synthetic basalt-reinforced foam bitumen depressed by diminishing the modifier amount because adding the 6 % synthetic basalt to the base bitumen increased it from −0.65 to 0.91. The obtained results indicated that the achieved modified bitumen with optimal temperature sensitivity could be a good choice for employment in road construction.

Phase Behavior of Mixtures of Bitumen andn-Butane

The phase behavior of bitumen and n-butane mixtures was investigated at temperatures from 20 to 230°C and pressures from 2 to 10 MPa. The measurements included saturation pressures, compositions at the onset of the second liquid phase, and the compositions and masses of the light n-butane-rich and heavy “pitch” phases in the liquid-liquid region. The phase compositions were measured in terms of the n-butane, maltenes, and C5-asphaltenes (pentane insolubles) contents. The bitumen component yields were reported as the mass of the component in the pitch phase divided by the mass of bitumen in the feed. The onsets, yields, and phase compositions were insensitive to temperature and pressure except possibly at 2 MPa and 20°C. The phase boundary data were used to construct pressure-composition diagrams. The phase compositions were used to construct a ternary diagram from which equilibrium constants were determined. The equilibrium constants were correlated to the feed n-butane content and used in a flash calcula...

Study and Analysis of Bitumen Mixture Incorporating with Waste Foundry Sand

Study and Analysis of Bitumen Mixture Incorporating with Waste Foundry Sand

Deformasi Permanen dan Modulus Resilien Campuran AC-BC Modified Menggunakan Aspal Multigrade

Multigrade asphalt use is an alternative method for handling road deterioration problem, e.g. a rutting, due to the repetitive traffic load and high pressure from vehicle wheels. In addition, the multigrade asphalt has been widely used to reduce temperature sensitivity of the asphalt mixture in flexible pavement due to an unpredictable climate change. Rutting is also caused by the accumulation of permanent deformations from all layers in the pavement structure. This study aims to analyze the permanent deformation value and the resilient modulus of an Asphalt Concrete Binder Course (AC-BC) modified mixture through the use of multigrade asphalt. The Wheel Tracking Test and UMATTA Test were used to test the specimens. The Tests on samples were carried out at temperatures of 35oC and 50oC. The results showed that the permanent deformation value of the AC-BC with multigrade asphalt had a better deformation resistance than the 60/70 pen bitumen mixture at 35oC. At the temperature of 50oC, the multigrade asphalt mixture had a smaller permanent deformation value (0.92 mm) compared to the 60/70 pen bitumen mixture. At the temperature of 35oC, multigrade asphalt mixture had a resilient modulus value of 1.04 times greater than the 60/70 pen bitumen mixture and at the temperature of 50oC, this mixture had a resilient modulus value of 1.16 times greater than the 60/70 pen bitumen mixture. Therefore, this study concluded that the increase/decrease of value of permanent deformation and resilient modulus were influenced by the temperature and types of asphalt in the mixture.

Solubility and Liquid Density of Ammonia/Athabasca Bitumen Mixtures at Temperatures up to 463 K: Measurements and Modeling

We report the experimental data of ammonia solubility in Athabasca bitumen measured at different temperatures and pressures ranging from 348 to 463 K and 1 to 4 MPa, respectively. The liquid-phase density of ammonia-saturated bitumen was measured for the samples that were taken during solubility measurements. The experimental data for ammonia solubility in bitumen were modeled using the Peng–Robinson equation of state. The volume-shift parameters of ammonia were tuned to represent the experimental density data of ammonia-saturated bitumen with an average absolute relative deviation percent (AARD%) of 0.218%. Also, tuning the binary interaction coefficient between ammonia and bitumen allowed the prediction of solubility data with an AARD of 8.537%. The data and the tuned model find applications in the reservoir modeling of solvent-aided thermal recovery of bitumen and heavy oil.

Microbial Eukaryotes in Oil Sands Environments: Heterotrophs in the Spotlight.

Hydrocarbon extraction and exploitation is a global, trillion-dollar industry. However, for decades it has also been known that fossil fuel usage is environmentally detrimental; the burning of hydrocarbons results in climate change, and environmental damage during extraction and transport can also occur. Substantial global efforts into mitigating this environmental disruption are underway. The global petroleum industry is moving more and more into exploiting unconventional oil reserves, such as oil sands and shale oil. The Albertan oil sands are one example of unconventional oil reserves; this mixture of sand and heavy bitumen lying under the boreal forest of Northern Alberta represent one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves, but extraction also requires the disturbance of a delicate northern ecosystem. Considerable effort is being made by various stakeholders to mitigate environmental impact and reclaim anthropogenically disturbed environments associated with oil sand extraction. In this review, we discuss the eukaryotic microbial communities associated with the boreal ecosystem and how this is affected by hydrocarbon extraction, with a particular emphasis on the reclamation of tailings ponds, where oil sands extraction waste is stored. Microbial eukaryotes, or protists, are an essential part of every global ecosystem, but our understanding of how they affect reclamation is limited due to our fledgling understanding of these organisms in anthropogenically hydrocarbon-associated environments and the difficulties of studying them. We advocate for an environmental DNA sequencing-based approach to determine the microbial communities of oil sands associated environments, and the importance of studying the heterotrophic components of these environments to gain a full understanding of how these environments operate and thus how they can be integrated with the natural watersheds of the region.

Influence of loading amplitude on viscoelastic properties of bitumen, mastic and bituminous mixtures

Bituminous materials are considered as linear viscoelastic for a small number of applied cycles at low strain amplitudes. Their behaviour can be represented considering the complex modulus and the complex Poisson’s ratio (isotropic case), which are obtained for sinusoidal loading. These two properties are independent of strain/stress amplitude in the case of linear viscoelasticity (LVE). However, when increasing amplitude, nonlinearity induces a strain dependence of the measured complex modulus. This paper investigates the phenomenon of nonlinearity in bitumen, mastic and bituminous mixture (BM). Strain amplitude sweep (SAS) tests were performed at different temperatures and frequencies. From LVE characterisation results, it was possible to observe relationships between the rheological behaviours of bitumen, mastic and bituminous mixture. Nonlinearity results show that BM presents non-negligible nonlinearity even for very small strain (few tens of µm/m). Nonlinearity effect is temperature- and frequency- dependent. The LVE limit decreases with temperature for BM and increases for bitumen and mastic. LVE limit in terms of stress amplitude changes following the same factor for all materials, suggesting that the nonlinearity observed on bituminous mixtures is inherited from the bitumen.

Numerical Investigation to Quantify the Rate of Damage within Mortar Bituminous Materials: Modeling of Cracks Initiation and Propagation

Asphalt concrete is highly used to construct pavement layers in the civil engineering field. It is defined as a complex medium composed of aggregates (inclusions), mortar (matrix) and air void. The mortar itself is a mixture of fillers, sand and bitumen. Furthermore, mortar is the phase that links the coarse aggregates. In general, fracture of asphalt concrete occurs within mortar or among aggregate-mortar interface. Therefore, two types of fracture can be identified, i.e., adhesive and cohesive damages. The first type is occurred among the interface of aggregate-mortar. The second is taken place within the mortar. This paper presents numerical investigations of the damage initiation and stiffness degradation within the asphalt concrete matrix. Numerical simulations were carried out to investigate, firstly, how damage is initiated and developed, and then, to simulate how cracks can be initiated and propagated within this material. Cohesive finite elements method was adopted to simulate fracture. For adhesive damage, the model was represented by one rectangular aggregate that is linked to the asphalt concrete thanks to a thin layer of the mortar. For cohesive damage, the model was considered as a thick layer of the mortar in between two coarse aggregates. The applied loading was derived from the speed of traffic vehicle. A comparative analysis between four mortars was conducted. The effect of loading and the type of mortar on damage initiation and stiffness degradation will be shown. Moreover, the initiation and propagation of cracks as function of loading and stiffness modulus will be illustrated.

Research on properties of bitumen mortar containing municipal solid waste incineration fly ash

Studying the property of bitumen mortar is essential in becoming more acquainted with the pavement performance of the bitumen mixture. In this paper, the leaching test carried out on the bitumen mortar containing municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash indicated that this process could obtain new materials without significant hazards to the environment. Some characterizations of bitumen mortar containing MSWI fly ash, which was used to replace the traditional limestone mineral filler (LMF) in bitumen mortar, were investigated. The softening point, penetration test, dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), bending beam rheometer (BBR), Brookfield viscosity test, and the scanning electron microscope (SEM) were carried out to evaluate the effects of MSWI fly ash on bitumen mortar properties. The experimental results demonstrated that adding MSWI fly ash resulted in reduced penetration, phase angle (δ), and creep rate (m) while resulted in increased softening point, complex shear modulus (G*), rutting factor (G*/sinδ), and creep stiffness (S). This indicated that MSWI fly ash- bitumen mortar had a negative influence on the low temperature properties but a positive impact on the high temperature properties compared with LMF- bitumen mortar. However, the negative effect of MSWI fly ash-bitumen mortar on the low temperature properties was negligible. Owing to the advantage of MSWI fly ash-bitumen mortar in environmental effects, energy conservation, and excellent performance, further research is needed about MSWI.