UP

Civil Engineering materials and

pavement design
SGM221
Theory 7
5/7 September 2022
Theory 7

SABITA Manual 2
SAPEM 9, 7; 8; 10; 11

2 © WJvdMS
Bitumen and tar

 Black-top road surfacings

 all materials consisting of combinations of aggregate and either
bitumen or tar
 Distinguish between different types of material that can be used to
surface a road
 Road surfacings typically manufactured using either bituminous
materials or concrete
 This course
 focus on bituminous materials
 seals and asphalt

3 ©WJvdMS
Introduction to bituminous roads materials

4
5
© WJvdMS
Tar

 Coal tar
 dark brown to black liquid
 high viscosity
 strong naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons smell

 Among the by-products when coal is carbonized to make coke or

gasified to make coal gas
 Complex and variable mixtures
 Phenols
 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
 heterocyclic compounds
 Formerly used as one of the primary ingredients of asphalt pavements

6 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen
 Mixture of organic liquids
 highly viscous
 black
 sticky
 entirely soluble in carbon disulfide
 composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

 Naturally occurring or crude bitumen

 sticky, tar-like form of petroleum
 Refined bitumen
 residual (bottom) fraction obtained by fractional distillation of crude oil
 heaviest fraction
 highest boiling point (525°C)

7 ©WJvdMS
8
© WJvdMS
9
© WJvdMS
Bitumen price affected by world economy

 Crude oil major commodity

 Oil price affected by world events
 Bitumen price affected by world events

10 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen price affected by world economy

 Crude oil major commodity

 Oil price affected by world events
 Bitumen price affected by world events

11 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen price affected by world economy
Iran
 Crude oil major commodity threatened
Straits of
Hormuz OPEC cut
 Oil price affected by world events oil supply
Financial to keep
 Bitumen price affected by world events crisis prices
stable

COVID19

Recession
and 9/11

12 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen vs Crude NY SE prices

13
Bitumen price after attack on oil refinery

14
Bitumen price after attack on oil refinery

15
16
© WJvdMS
17
© WJvdMS
 Pavementinteractive.org
Asphalt Production and Oil Refining

18
© WJvdMS
Bitumen

 Primary use of bitumen

 road construction
 glue or binder for the aggregate particles

 Asphalt
 mixture of aggregate and bitumen
 American engineering literature
 bitumen as asphalt and
 asphalt (mixture of aggregate and bitumen) as Asphalt
Concrete (AC)

19 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen

 Separated from other components in crude oil

 naphtha and fuel
 process of fractional distillation
 under vacuum conditions
 Better separation by further processing of heavier fractions of
the crude oil in a de-asphalting unit
 lighter molecules are dissolved and separated
 Further processing possible by reacting with oxygen (blowing)
 harder and more viscous

20 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen

 Typically stored and transported at temperatures around 150°C

 Bitumen tankers route hot engine exhaust through pipes in the dump
body to keep the material warm
 Backs of tippers carrying asphalt commonly sprayed with releasing
agent before filling to aid release

21 ©WJvdMS
 Add Meyerton photos
 Plastic roads

22 ©WJvdMS
Plastic roads

 Plastic – manufactured (mostly) from petrochemicals

 Similar source than bitumen
 Old tyres – bitumen rubber

23 ©WJvdMS
Road products
 Typical road surfacings
 asphalt
 seals

 Asphalt
 Combination of bitumen, aggregate and fines
 SA typically between 30 and 70 mm thick
 American and European pavement designs up to 300 mm

 Seals
 Thin surfacing layers
 combination layer of bitumen (typically sprayed onto the road)
 layer (or more) of aggregate rolled onto layer of bitumen
 extensively used in SA for new construction and maintenance actions

24 ©WJvdMS
 Types and grades of bitumen
 Penetration grade
 Cutback
 Modified

 Types of modifiers in SA
 Styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) latex
 Styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) latex
 Rubber crumb
 Ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA)
 Synthetic wax (Sasobit)

26 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen hardening

 Dominant mechanisms
 Oxidation
 Loss of volatiles
 Physical (reorientation of molecules)
 Exudation (oily substances absorbed into porous aggregates)

 Hardening during use

 Hot mix bulk storage
 Hot mix manufacture
 Handling (storage, transport etc)
 In-service (sun etc)

27 ©WJvdMS
28
© WJvdMS
30
© WJvdMS
Asphalt emulsion

 Technologies allow asphalt to be mixed at much lower temperatures

 Mixing asphalt with petroleum solvents to form cutbacks with
reduced melting point or mixtures with water to turn the asphalt into
an emulsion
 Asphalt emulsions
 up to 70 % bitumen and <1.5 % chemical additives
 Two main types of emulsions
 cationic and anionic

31 ©WJvdMS
 Emulsions

32
© WJvdMS 32
Emulsions

 Types
 Cationic (+)
 Better for adhering to mineral aggregates
 Anionic (-)
 Properties
 Stability
 Viscosity
 Breaking (when bitumen particles agglomerate)
 Uses
 Slightly wet, dusty conditions OK
 Lower temperature application
 Handwork

33 ©WJvdMS
 Acidic aggregate (granite, quartzite)
 Negatively charged
 Use cationic emulsion

 Dolomite, Limestone
 Positively charged
 Use anionic emulsion

34 ©WJvdMS
36
© WJvdMS
Classification of modified binders
 Type of application
 S – Seal
 A – Asphalt
 C – Crack sealant
 Type of modifier
 E – elastomer
 P – plastomer
 R – rubber crumb
 H - hydrocarbon
 Type of binder system
 Emulsion – C after type
 Level of modification
 Numerical value indicate increasing softening point

37 ©WJvdMS
39
© WJvdMS
Source
 Previously - Four crude oil refineries in SA
 Cape Town, Durban (2), Sasolburg
 Currently only 1 left - Sasolburg
 Produce bitumen
 Major importation currently

 Emulsion
 Various plants

 Asphalt
 On site
 Plants

 Seals
 On site (combination of aggregate and binder)

40 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen importation

 Bitumen imported by sea

 bulk liquid cargo - relatively small tankers with capacities ranging
from 2 000 to 10 000 tons
 specially designed containers manufactured to ISO 1496, typically
of 20 to 29 ton capacity
 drums in various dimensions and capacity ranging from 40 to 240
kg
 bag systems with storage capacity up to 1 000 kg of bitumen

 Sabita Manual 41: Best practice for guide for the procurement and
importing of bitumen which gives valuable guidance on quality
assurance, import logistics and compliance with legislation in terms of
import regulation and health and safety aspects

41 ©WJvdMS
Bitumen importation

42
Sampling

 Need to test for compliance to specifications

 Representative samples
 Standard method for sampling
 At refinery
 Off-loading point
 Differences in properties?

 Safe handling

43 ©WJvdMS
Standard tests

 Typically ASTM and AASHTO tests

 Repeatability and reproducibility

 Tests for penetration grade bitumen

 Penetration test
 Softening point
 Viscosity
 Rolling thin-film oven (RTFOT)
 Spot test

 Bitumen test data chart

44 ©WJvdMS
New system
48
© WJvdMS
49
© WJvdMS
50
© WJvdMS
51
© WJvdMS
52
© WJvdMS
Tests on bitumen emulsions
 Binder content test
 Determine residual binder through distillation

 Viscosity
 Lower viscosity than penetration bitumen
 Saybolt Furol viscometer

 Other emulsion specific tests

 Why?
 Coagulation
 Sieve
 Sedimentation
 Water suitability

53 ©WJvdMS
Tests on modified binders

 Properties of the binder is different

 Need to evaluate these properties
 Purpose of the tests

 Softening point
 Dynamic viscosity
 Storage stability
 Elastic recovery
 Modified RTFOT
 Ball penetration and resilience
 Compression recovery
 Flow

54 ©WJvdMS
Handling of bituminous binders

 Hazards
 Elevated temperatures
 Combustion
 Vapour emissions
 Contact with water

 Treatment of burns
 Skin
 Circumferential
 Eye

55 ©WJvdMS
Selection and applications
 Factors affecting
 Aggregate
 Environmental conditions
 Traffic
 Geographic location
 Topography
 Costs / budget
 Construction methods

 Details for different layers – refer to Sabita Manual 2

 Prime, tack coat, curing membrane, precoating fluid
 Base
 Wearing courses
 Hot mix asphalt
 Cold mix asphalt
 Seals

56 ©WJvdMS
Typical temperatures

 Dependent on
 Product
 Application
 Environment
 Season

 Need to have an overall Application Typical temperatures

understanding Seals (penetration bitumen) 130 to 180°C

Seals (emulsions) 60 to 70°C
Base prime 55 to 60°C
Hot mix asphalt 135 to 210°C
Stabilisation (emulsion) 60°C
57 ©WJvdMS
Some general asphalt issues

58 ©WJvdMS
 1 hour @ 20°C

8 hours @ 20°C

59
© WJvdMS
 20 hour
@ 20°C

28 hours
@ 20°C

60
© WJvdMS
Influence of temperature

61
Temperature
30.0

60C
Permanent surface deformation [mm] 25.0

20.0

55C
15.0

50C
10.0

5.0

40C
0.0
0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000
Load applications

441A4 Max Average CS 441A4 Max rut CS 441A4 Max Average TS 441A4 Max rut TS
442A4 Max Average CS 442A4 Max rut CS 442A4 Max Average TS 442A4 Max rut TS
443A4 Max Average CS 443A4 Max rut CS 443A4 Max Average TS 443A4 Max rut TS
62
63
© WJvdMS
Effect of fuel immersion
on asphalt

64
65
© WJvdMS
66
© WJvdMS
67
© WJvdMS
Ring-and-Ball test

Insert date under view on slide master

Penetration test

Insert date under view on slide master

Viscosity

Insert date under view on slide master

Rolling Thin Film Oven Test

Insert date under view on slide master