Improvement of softening point of liquified bitumen by adding polymers type styrene-butadiene styrene grade - 6302

• Main Authors: Saleh, Mohammad Mehdi, Kamar, Firas Hashim, Abbas, Salman H.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Asphalt; Bitumens; Butadiene; Design of experiments; Mechanical properties; Pavement materials; Polymers; Polystyrene resins; Road construction; Softening points; Styrenes; Taguchi methods
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0213116

Recently, polymeric materials have been used to improve the properties of bitumen which is used in the process of road construction. Polymeric materials, such as styrene-butadiene-styrene, polystyrene, and others, especially in paving materials, have received increasing attention. Our study focused on the effect of adding polymers type styrene-butadiene styrene grade - 6302 on the volumetric properties and mechanical performance of the produced hot asphalt binder. This was done through, the study of mixing conditions on the dispersion of the polymer in asphalt to obtain a homogeneous bond was studied. Therefore several variables were taken into account; temperature at different levels (170, 175, 180, 185, and 190 °C), different weight percent of styrene-butadiene-styrene grade - 6302 (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6%) and mixing time (30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 min). To determine the number of practical experiments and reveal the most controlled variables, the Taguchi method of the experimental design was used in this study. Bitumen was mixed with polymer by a thermal mixer at 2800 rpm and the mixer was a mixer and grinder. The polymeric material is placed as soon as the bitumen reaches the flow stage, in order to maintain the quality of the bitumen when the temperature rises to more than 150 °C.