National Institute of Technology, Warangal

A PRESENTATION ON BITUMEN TESTS AS

A PART OF TRANSPORTATION
ENGINEERING
LABORATORY WORK FOR B.TECH 5TH
SEMESTER
Presented by
Shubham Pandey
M.Tech
Transportation Engineering
CONTENT
 Introduction
 Material Requirements of flexible pavement

 Bitumen

 Grading of Bitumen

 Tests on Bitumen

 Ductility test

 Specific Gravity test

 Flash and Fire Point test

 Rolling Thin Film Oven Test (RTFOT)

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CONVENTIONAL FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT

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MATERIALS REQUIREMENT OF
FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS
 Soil
 Aggregates (Filler, Coarse and Fine)

 Binder (Bitumen)

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BITUMEN (IS: 1201 – 1978 TO IS : 1220 – 1978)
HTTP://WWW.IITK.AC.IN/CE/TEST/IS-CODES/IS.1201-1220.1978.PDF

• Bitumen is obtained as byproduct of fractional distillation of crude oil.

• Bituminous materials or asphalts are extensively used for roadway construction,
primarily because of their excellent binding characteristics, water proofing properties
and relatively low cost. Bitumen has adhesive properties.

Fig 2: Fractional
distillation of Crude oil
Source: Google

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GRADING OF BITUMEN
 By Chewing
 Penetration Grading

 80/100, 60/70

 A-35

 S-35

 Viscosity Grading

 VG10, VG20, VG30, VG40

 Superpave Performance Grading

 PG 64-22

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TESTS ON BITUMEN
 Penetration test

 Softening Point test

 Absolute and Kinematic Viscosity test

 Ductility test

 Specific Gravity test

 Flash and Fire point test

 Rolling Thin Film Oven test (RTFOT)

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DUCTILITY TEST (IS :1208-1978)
• Helps in understanding the cohesive nature of bituminous material.
• Ductility is the property of bitumen that permits it to undergo great
deformation or elongation.
• Ductility is determined as the distance in cm, to which a standard sample
or briquette of the material will be elongated without breaking.
• Apparatus:
 Briquette Mould
 Water Bath
 Ductility setup
 Thermometer

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DUCTILITY TEST (IS :1208-1978)
• Video web reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE8zYxUJHt0&t=411s
• Virtual lab reference
https://ts-nitk.vlabs.ac.in/transportation-engineering/
•Procedure:
Make bitumen to liquidity by heating to softening point temperature +
(75-100) ⁰C & pour in briquette moulds.
Condition the sample (in briquette moulds) to 30-40 min in atmosphere
air/ room temperature.
Then place the sample in water bath at about 25 ⁰C for another 85 to 95
min.
Now fix the sample mould in the ductility machine and apply the pulling
speed at 50 mm/min and conduct the experiment. 9

Report the result in “cm” extension.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF BITUMEN (IS :1202-1978)
• In most cases bitumen is weighed, but when used with aggregates, the bitumen is
converted to volume using density values.
• Determines the quality of bitumen being used for paving applications.
• The specific gravity of bitumen is defined as the ratio of mass of given volume of
bitumen of known content to the mass of equal volume of water at 27 ⁰C.
• Specific gravity of bitumen generally lies between 0.97 to 1.02.
• Apparatus: Pyknometer Method
 Specific Gravity bottle of 50 ml
 Weighing balance
 Distilled Water
 Water bath
(maintained at 27 ⁰C)
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SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF BITUMEN (IS :1202-1978)
•Video references:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf4ds_7SETw&t=24s
•Virtual lab reference
https://ts-nitk.vlabs.ac.in/transportation-engineering/
• Procedure:
 Take empty wt of specific gravity bottle as W1.
 Now, fill water in bottle and condition the bottle at 27 ⁰C. Now take out the bottle &
weigh it as W2.
 Now pour bitumen (at about 90 degree C) and fill it in empty specific gravity bottle
upto half level, condition it in water bath for about 30 min and weigh as W3.
 Now fill the remaining half part with water and condition it at 27 ⁰C for half an hour.
Take its weight as W4.
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FLASH & FIRE POINT TEST (IS:1209-1978)
• Explains the temperatures where the bitumen gives flames and might catch fire respectively.
• Flash Point - The flash point of a material is the lowest temperature at which the application of
test flame causes the vapour from the material momentarily catch fire in the form of a flash under
specified conditions of test.
• Fire Point - The fire point is the lowest temperature at which the application of test flame
causes the material to ignite and burn atleast for 5 s under specified conditions of test.
•Video references:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR7q4-ilENA&t=116s
• Apparatus Required – (Pensky Martens Open and closed cup tester)
 Closed cup tester
 Cup
 Flame exposure device
 Heating device with temperature Regulator
 Stirring device
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 Thermometer
FLASH & FIRE POINT TEST (IS:1209-1978)
• Procedure:
(a) Clean and dry all parts of the cup and its accessories thoroughly before test.
(b) Fill the Pensky Martens cup with bitumen, which is heated well above its
softening point, upto filling mark.
(c) Start heating the material @ 5-6 ⁰C per min. Parallely stir the material in cup @
60 revolutions per min.
(d) From 17 deg below flash point, Stirring is stopped and test flame is applied at
rise of every 1 ⁰C to 3 ⁰C.
(e) The temperature at which it gets ignited momentarily and gives flash is noted as
Flash point.
(f) The temperature at which it gets ignited for about 5 sec that temperature is
noted as fire point of bitumen.
(g) Report both the flash & fire point temperature.
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Rolling think film oven test(RTFOT)
(AASHTO T 240 and ASTM D 2872)

•Test useful for determining characteristics of binder inside the mix while being placed
and compacted in the site i.e. short term ageing.
•Video references:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBbQ9pXNWMU
•The short term ageing is simulated in the lab through RTFOT by passing air @ 4000
ml/min and a temperature of 163 ⁰C for around 85 minutes and Carousel is rotated at 15
RPM over a thin layer of bitumen.
•The recovered binders from RTFOT is used for further characterization analysis and
mass loss calculations.
•Reference:
https://pavementinteractive.org/reference-desk/testing/binder-tests/rolling-thin-film-
oven/
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AASHTO T 240 and ASTM D 2872. Effect of Heat and Air on a Moving
Film of Asphalt (Rolling Thin-Film Oven Test)
BIS 73 : 2013, PAVING BITUMEN — SPECIFICATION
Source:- http://www.iitk.ac.in/ce/test/IS-codes/is.73.2013.pdf

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