FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND

BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

TRANSPORTATION LABORATORY

FULL REPORT
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FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT

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 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

1.0 BACKGROUND

Unlike some substances (e.g. water which changes from solid to liquid at 0ºC
bituminous materials do not have a definite melting point. Instead, as the
temperature rises, these materials slowly change from brittle or very thick and slow-
flowing materials to softer and less viscous liquids. For this reason, the
determination of 'softening p o i n t ’ must be made by a fixed, arbitrary and closely
defined method if results are to be comparable.
Being very simple in concept and equipment, the Ring-and-Ball Test has remained
a valuable consistency test for control in refining operations, particularly in the
production of air-blown bitumen’s. It is also an indirect measure of viscosity or,
rather, the temperature at which a given viscosity is evident. The softening point
value has particular significance for materials which are to be used as thick films,
such as joint and crack fillers and roofing materials. A high softening point ensures
that they will not flow in service. For a bitumen of a given penetration (determined
at 25ºC), the higher of softening point give the lower the temperature sensitivity.

Research has shown that for conventional paving grade bitumen’s, the Ring-and-Ball
softening point temperature is the same as that which would give a penetration of
800 d-mm. This, together with the penetration at 25ºC, can be used to compute the
Penetration Index.

2.0 OBJECTIVE

To determine the softening point of bituminous binder within the range 30ºC to 157ºC
by means of the Ring-and-Ball apparatus which to know the ideal temperature of
bituminous binder should be heated for various road use applications.
 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

3.0 SUMMARY OF TEST METHOD (ASTM D36)

The ring and ball test is carried out in accordance to American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM) D 36 procedures. Two horizontal disks of bitumen, cast in
shouldered brass ring are heated at a controlled rate in a liquid bath each supports a
steel ball. The softening point is reported as the mean temperature at which the
bitumen disk softens and sags downwards at a distance of 25 mm under the weight of
a standard 3.5 gm steel ball.

4.0 PROCEDURE (See Figure 1)

1. The sample prepared as specified according to the ASTM D 36 standard

procedure, heated at temperature 100°C above the approximate softening point
in an oven until it has become sufficiently fluid to pour and samples must not be
heated for more than 30 minutes.
2. The brass rings to be used for the test are placed on a flat smooth brass plate,
which has been coated immediately prior to use, with a thin covering of a mixture
of glycerin to prevent the bitumen sticking to the plate.
3. When the bitumen is sufficiently fluid to pour, the rings should be filled with
bitumen and allowed to cool for a minimum of 30 minutes at room temperature.
4. After cooling the excess material on the top of the specimen must be cut off
cleanly using a moral palette knife.
5. The apparatus is assembled with the rings, ball centering guides and thermometer
in position and the beaker is filled with water to a depth of not less than 102 mm
and not more than 108mm.
 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

6. At this time the temperature of distilled water is kept at 5°C and maintained for
15 minutes after which the balls are placed in position.
7. Then the temperature of water is raised at uniform rate of 5±1°C per minute with
a controlled heating unit, until the bitumen softens and touches the bottom plate
by sinking of balls.
8. The rate of temperature rise is critical and if after the first 3 minutes the rise
varies from the 5°C in any minute period, by more than ± 0. 5°C, the test must
be abandoned.
9. At least two observations are made.
10. As the temperature rises, the balls will begin to cause the bitumen in the rings
to sag downwards, the water temperature at the instant the bitumen touches the
bottom plate is taken for each ball. If the two temperatures differ by more than
1°C, the test must be repeated using fresh samples.
11. Clean all the apparatus after completed the test.

5.0 RESULTS

Rigid adherence to the prescribed preparation of specimens and heating is absolutely

essential for reproducibility of the results. The mean temperature of the two

specimens (which shall not differ by more than 10C) is recorded as the softening
point. This temperature is to be used in conjunction with the penetration value to
obtained the Penetration Index (PI).
 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

Figure 1: Assembly of ring-and-ball apparatus for two rings (stirrer not shown)
 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

6.0 SIMULATION
Please watch the videos on how to conduct the Softening Test in the laboratory:

(i) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yBXl4z70mI
(ii) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBptuNTDs1g&t=38s

The video above shows the preparing the sample bitumen for softening test. Therefore,
it has a slight difference from our procedure mentioned previously in Section 4.0
Procedure.

7.0 CALCULATION
The ring and ball softening point is simply the average of the two temperatures at which
the bitumen just touches the bottom plate shown as Table 1.

Table 1: Softening Point Test (ASTM D36)

Number of Test Softening Point (0C)

1
2
Average
 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

8.0 REFERENCES

1. ASTM (2005) ASTM D 36: Standard Test Method for Softening Point of Bitumen
(Ring and Ball Apparatus), Annual Book of American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM) Standards, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959, United
States,

2. Millard, R.S. (1993). Road building in the tropics. Transport Research Laboratory
State-of-the-art Review 9, HMSO, London.
.
9.0 ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

A group of student conducted the Softening test in a transportation laboratory in order

to determine the consistency of bitumen and to know the temperature up to which a
bituminous binder should be heated for various road use applications. Table 2 shows
the Softening test results.

Table 2: Softening Point Test Values

Number of Test Softening Point (0C)

Bitumen Bitumen Bitumen (c)
1 43.0 49.5 59.5
2 44.0 50.0 60.5
3 43.0 50.5 59.5
4 43.5 49.5 60.5
Average

From the Table 2, determine the Softening test for every bitumen’s type.
 Faculty :
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built
Environment
Department :
Department of Civil Engineering
Title :
SOFTENING POINT OF BITUMEN

(a) Based on the Softening test values obtained, classify and evaluate the consistency of
bitumen sample for flexible pavement use.
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(b) Briefly state what need the temperature of water raised at uniform rate of 5±1°C per
minute and what is correlation between viscosity of bitumen soften on the
consistency of bitumen.
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(c) Briefly state the international standard limits and Malaysian Standard MS:124 (1973)
of Softening test for bituminous to justified the best selection in road construction.
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