Pavement Design and Construction

Assignment 1
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Q.1) Give an idea of the significance of bitumen road constructionconstruction.

Answer:

Bitumen is a binding organic material made from the by-products of refined crude oil.
It is used in road construction because it is easy to produce, reusable, non-toxic and a
strong binder.

Bitumen is used in road construction due to various properties and advantages it has
over other pavement construction materials. Bitumen gain certain unique properties
that are inbuilt in it during its manufacture. The bitumen as a raw material in flexible
road construction and bitumen as a mix (composing other materials i.e. aggregates/
pozzolans) serves certain advantages, that prompt to use bitumen widely in road
construction.

Some significant applications of bitumen in flexible pavements are:

1. Production of Bitumen is economical.

2. Physical and Rheological Properties of Bitumen bring Versatility.
3. The Melting Point of Bitumen is low.
4. Bitumen can undergo Recycling.
5. Bitumen gain Adhesive Nature.
6. Bitumen has Color Variety.

An overall bitumen mix is used in the construction of flexible pavement to serve the
following needs.

1. Structural Strength of Bituminous Pavements

The primary purpose of these bitumen mixes is structural strength provision. This
involves even load dispersion throughout the layers of the pavement. The loads
involved are dynamic or static loads, which is transferred to the base subgrade
through the aggregate course.

2. Surface Drainage of Bituminous Pavements

Subsurface drainage can be facilitated using granular sub base in the construction of
flexible pavement. Permeable asphalt treated base (PATB) can be used to provided
positive surface drainage in major highways. This would behave as a separate course
for facilitating subsurface drainage.

3. Surface Friction of Bituminous Roads

It is essential for the pavement layer to provide enough skid resistance and friction,
during vehicle passage, especially in wet condition. This would ensure the safety of
the passengers. The macro and the micro surface texture of the asphalt mix
contributes towards the surface friction.
Advantages of Bituminous Road Construction Over Concrete Pavements:

1. A smooth Ride Surface

It does not make use of any joints; Hence provide a smooth surface to ride.
2. Gradual Failure
The deformation and the failure in the bituminous pavement is a gradual process. The
concrete pavement shows brittle failures.

3. Quick Repair
They have an option to be repaired to be quick. They don’t consume time in reverting
the path for traffic; as they set fast.

4. Staged Construction
This helps in carrying out staged construction in a situation when problems of fund
constraint or traffic estimation problems are faced.

5. Life Cost is Less

The initial cost and overall maintenance cost of bituminous pavement are less
compared to concrete pavement.

6. Temperature Resistant
They act resistant against high temperature from melting and are not affected by de-
icing materials.

Disadvantages of Bituminous Pavement

1)Bituminous pavements are less durable

2)Low tensile strength compared to concrete pavement
3)Extreme weather and improper weather conditions tend to make bituminous
pavement slick and soft.
4)Bitumen with impurities can cause pollution to soil, hence ground water by their
melting. These may have hydrocarbons in small amounts.
5)Clogging of pores and drainage path during construction and service life
6)More salting- to prevent snow during winter season
7)Cost of construction high during extreme conditions of temperature

The bitumen can be classified into the following grade types:

a)Penetration Grade Bitumen

The penetration grade bitumen is refinery bitumen that is manufactured at different
viscosities. The penetration test is carried out to characterize the bitumen, based on
the hardness. Thus, it has the name penetration bitumen.

b)Oxidized Bitumen Grades

The refinery bitumen is further treated by the introduction of processed air. This will
give us oxidized bitumen. By maintaining a controlled temperature, the air is
introduced under pressure into soft bitumen.

The oxidized bitumen is used in industrial applications such as roofing and coating for
pipes. By this method of processing, the bitumen that has a lower penetration can be
manufactured, which can be employed for paving roads.

c)Cut Back Bitumen

These are a grade of bitumen that comes under penetration grade bitumen. This type
of bitumen has a temporarily reduced viscosity by the introduction of a volatile oil.
Once after the application, the volatile material is evaporated and bitumen gain its
original viscosity.

d)Bitumen Emulsion
The this type of bitumen forms a two-phase system with two immiscible liquids. One
of them is dispersed as fine globules within the other liquid. When discrete globules
of bitumen are dispersed in a continuous form of water, bitumen emulsion is formed.

e)Polymer Modified Bitumen

Polymer modified bitumen is the type of bitumen obtained by the modification of
strength and the rheological properties of the penetration graded bitumen. Here for
this 2 to 8% of polymer is added.

To ensure the quality of bitumen several tests are performed which are as follows.

1)Ductility test
The property of bitumen which allows it to undergo deformation or elongation is
called ductility of bitumen. The ductility of bitumen is measured by the distance in
Cm (centimeter), to which the bitumen sample will elongate before breaking when it
is pulled by standard specimen at specified speed and temperature.

Firstly the bitumen sample is heated to 75-100oC and melted completely. This is
poured into the assembled mold which is placed on brass plate. To prevent sticking
the mold and plate are coated with glycerin and dextrin. After filling the mold, placed
it in room temperature for 30-40 minutes and then placed it in water for 30 minutes.

Then take it out and cut the excess amount of bitumen with the help of hot knife and
level the surface. Then place the whole assembly in water bath of ductility machine
for 85 to 95 minutes. Then detach the brass plate and the hooks of mold are fixed to
machine and operate the machine.

The machine pulls the two clips of the mold horizontally and then bitumen elongates.
The distance up to the point of breaking from the starting point is noted as ductility
value of bitumen. The minimum value should be 75cm.

2)Flash and Fire point test

Flash point of bitumen is defined as the point of lowest temperature at which bitumen
catches vapors of test flame and fires in the form of flash. Fire point of bitumen is
defined as the point of lowest temperature at which the bitumen ignites and burns at
least for 5 second under specific conditions of test.

Flash and fire point test helps to control fire accidents in bitumen coated areas. By this
test we can decide the bitumen grade with respect to temperature for particular areas
of high temperatures.
3)Float test
Float test is used to determine the consistency of bitumen. But we generally use
penetration test and viscosity test to find out the consistency of bitumen except for
certain range of consistencies. The float test apparatus consists of aluminum float and
brass collars as shown in below figure.

These collars are filled with melted bitumen sample and cooled to 5oC and then
attached them into aluminum floats and this assembly is placed in water bath at a
temperature of 50oC. Note down the time in seconds from the instant the float is put
on the water bath until the water breaks the material and enters the float.

4)Loss on heating test

When the bitumen is heated, water content present in the bitumen is evaporated and
bitumen becomes brittle which can be damaged easily. So, to know the amount of loss
ness we will perform this test. In this test, take the bitumen sample and note down its
weight to 0.01gm accuracy at room temperature.

Then place the sample in oven and heat it for 5 hours at 163oC. After that take out the
sample and cooled it to room temperature and take the weight to 0.01gm accuracy and
note down the value. Then for the two values of weight before and after heating we
can compute the loss of mass. The loss should be less than 5% of total weight
otherwise it is not preferred for construction.

5)Penetration test
The penetration value of bitumen is measured by distance in tenths of mm that a
standard needle would penetrate vertically into bitumen sample under standard
conditions of test. By this test we can determine the hardness or softness value of
bitumen.

In this test, firstly heat the bitumen above its softening point and pour it into a
container of depth attest 15mm. bitumen should be stirred wisely to remove air
bubbles. Then cool it to room temperature for 90 minutes and then placed it in water
bath for 90 minutes.

Then place the container in the penetration machine adjust the needle to make contact
with the surface of the sample. Make dial reading zero and release the needle for
exactly 5 seconds and note down the penetration value of the needle for that 5
seconds. Just repeat the procedure thrice and note down the average value.

6)Softening point test

Softening point of bitumen indicates the point at which bitumen attains a particular
degree of softening under specified conditions of the test. Take small amount of
bitumen sample and heat it up to 75-100oC. Ring and ball apparatus is used to
conduct this test. Heat the rings and apply glycerin to prevent from sticking. Fill this
rings with bitumen and remove the excess material with hot sharp knife.

Assemble the apparatus parts, balls are arranged in guided position that is on the top
of bitumen sample. And fill the beaker with boiled distilled water. Then apply
temperature @ 5oC per minute. At certain temperature bitumen softens and ball
slowly move downwards and touches the bottom plate, this point is noted as softening
point.

7)Specific gravity test

Specific gravity of bitumen is the ration of mass of given volume of bitumen to the
mass of equal volume of water at specified temperature. Specific gravity is the good
indicator of quality of binder. It can be determined by pycnometer method.

In this method, take clean and dry specific gravity bottle and take its weight(w1).in
the 2nd case, fill the bottle with distilled water and dip it in water bath for 30 minutes
and note down the weight(w2). Next, fill half the bottle with bitumen sample and
weigh (w3).

Finally fill the bottle with half water and half portion with bitumen and weigh (w4).
Now we can find out specific gravity from the formulae.

8)Viscosity test
Viscosity is the property of bitumen which influences the ability of bitumen to spread,
penetrate into the voids and also coat the aggregates. That is it influences the fluid
property of bitumen. If viscosity of bitumen is higher, compactive effort of bitumen
reduces and heterogeneous mixture arises.

If viscosity is lower, then it will lubricate the aggregate particles. Viscosity is

determined by using tar viscometer. The viscosity of bitumen is expressed in seconds
is the time required for the 50 ml bitumen sample to pass through the orifice of a cup,
under standard conditions of test and at specified temperature.

9)Water content test

When bitumen is heated above the boiling point of water, sometimes foaming of
bitumen occurs. To prevent this bitumen should have minimum water content in it.
Water content in bitumen is determined by dean and stark method. In this method, the
bitumen sample is kept in 500ml heat resistant glass container.

Container is heated to just above the boiling point of water. The evaporated water is
condensed and collected. This collected water is expressed in terms of mass
percentage of sample. It should not more than 0.2% by weight.

Q.2) Differentiate between bitumen and tar. What is the use of cut back bitumen in
road construction?
Answer:
Cut Back Bittumen:
Normal practice is to heat bitumen to reduce its viscosity. In some situations
preference is given to use liquid binders such as cutback bitumen. In cutback bitumen
suitable solvent is used to lower the viscosity of the bitumen. From the environmental
point of view also cutback bitumen is preferred. The solvent from the bituminous
material will evaporate and the bitumen will bind the aggregate. Cutback bitumen is
used for cold weather bituminous road construction and maintenance. The distillates
used for preparation of cutback bitumen are naphtha, kerosene, diesel oil, and furnace
oil. There are different types of cutback bitumen like rapid curing (RC), medium
curing (MC), and slow curing (SC). RC is recommended for surface dressing and
patchwork. MC is recommended for premix with less quantity of fine aggregates. SC
is used for premix with appreciable quantity of fine aggregates.