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Determination of rheological properties of bio-asphalt binders through

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DOI: 10.1016/j.asej.2021.04.003

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Civil Engineering

Determination of rheological properties of bio-asphalt binders through

experimental and multilayer feed-forward neural network methods
Abdulnaser M Al-Sabaeei a,⇑, Madzlan B Napiah a, Muslich H Sutanto a, Suzielah Rahmad b,
Nur Izzi Md Yusoff b, Wesam S Alaloul a
a
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study seeks to determine the rheological properties of unaged and RTFO-aged bio-asphalt binders
Received 28 November 2019 using experimental and modelling methods. Crude palm oil (CPO) was used as a bio-oil at varying per-
Revised 8 May 2020 centages of 0, 5, 10 and 15% by total weight of asphalt binder. The dynamic shear rheometer (DSR)
Accepted 10 April 2021
was used to investigate the rheological properties of bio-asphalt binders. The multilayer feed-forward
Available online xxxx
neural network method was used to predict the complex modulus and phase angle of bio-asphalt binders
by virtue of its ability to learn and adapt. Result of the DSR analysis showed that the complex modulus of
Keywords:
bio-asphalt with 5% CPO is almost similar as that of the base asphalt binder, and that higher CPO content
Bio-asphalt
Crude palm oil
resulted in reduced complex modulus and higher phase angle. Result of the modelling shows that all
Rheological properties models have an R2 value greater than 0.99, thus indicating the good agreement between the predicted
Artificial neural network and the experimental results.
Ó 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Uni-
versity. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
The global increase in the construction of new roads and main-
tenance and rehabilitation of existing roads require a huge amount
of asphalt binder produced by crude oil refining [1]. The govern-
ment, researchers and asphalt binder industry are always looking
for alternative materials that have the ability to improve the prop-
erties of asphalt road pavements whilst reducing their carbon foot-
print [2]. Biotechnology is considered to be one of the key
alternatives for a wide range of technologies [3,4]. Its utilisation
in the field of pavement engineering has been receiving serious
attention due to its eco-friendliness, cost effectiveness, renewabil-
ity and energy efficiency in comparison to petroleum based asphalt
binders [5–11]. Several experimental trials have been carried out
to determine the feasibility of using biomaterials as a partial or
total replacement for base asphalt binder. These experimental tri-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: abdulnaser_17005477@utp.edu.my (A.M Al-Sabaeei).
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
als have achieved a certain degree of success in using the biomate-
rials as an extender. A small number of researchers have
investigated the use of crude palm oil (CPO) in bio-asphalt binders.
Due to its wide availability, the use of CPO as an extender for base
asphalt binders is more cost-effective in contrast the use of other
types of bio-oils. A total of 64.5 million metric tonnes of crude
palm oil was produced globally between 2016 and 2017 [12].
The production of palm oil in the international market is much
higher than any other vegetable oils [13]. Thus, there is an urgent
necessity to develop the technologies for benefiting from this large
quantity of palm oil in various biofuel applications, including its
use in bio-binders.
A number of recent studies have investigated the rheological
properties of various bio-binder materials. Wang et al. (2018)
examined the chemical and rheological properties of bio-binders
by incorporating waste cooking oil (WCO) and styrene–butadienes
tyrene (SBS) as modifiers. The researchers observed that higher
bio-oil content resulted in a marked improvement of the fatigue
performance of bio-asphalt at intermediate temperature despite
the reduced rutting resistance. It was concluded that WCO is a
promising bio-oil material for the production of a sustainable
asphalt binder [14]. Sun et al. (2016) reported that WCO has the
ability to significantly improve the fatigue and cracking resistance
properties of asphalt binders in spite of the reduced rutting

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.04.003
2090-4479/Ó 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al., Determination of rheological properties of bio-asphalt binders through exper-
imental and multilayer feed-forward neural network methods, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.04.003
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al.
resistance of bio-asphalts with higher WCO content [15]. The bio-
binder derived from swine manure was used as a modifier in the
investigation of rheological properties of bio-asphalt. Results
showed that swine manure has the ability to enhance the low tem-
perature properties of asphalt binder although the high tempera-
ture grade decreased with higher bio-oil content [16]. It is
believed that bio-asphalt and base asphalt binder share some sim-
ilarities with regard to their chemical and rheological properties,
and thus bio-oil is regarded as one of the appropriate modifiers
for improving the properties of asphalt binder used in the con-
struction of asphalt pavements [1,17,18]. Bio-binder is very effec-
tive in reducing the viscosity of asphalt binders at high
temperatures, and this leads to better workability of asphalt mix-
tures and better energy efficiency [5,17,19]. Chen et al. (2014)
studied the ability of waste edible oil to act as a rejuvenator of
the empirical and rheological characteristics of aged asphalt bin-
ders modified with SBS. The findings of their study indicate that
the improvement in the empirical and rheological properties of
aged asphalt binder correspond with the dose of base binder reju-
venator. The incorporation of SBS also resulted in enhanced rutting
resistance of the rejuvenated asphalt binder. However, these
improvements were observed for high-temperature properties
and thus there is a need to find ways to improve the low-
temperature properties of the binders [20].
Alamawi et al. (2019) investigated the use of palm kernel oil
polyol bio-based binder as a partial replacement for petroleum-
based binder. The temperature sensitivity of bio-asphalt binders
is reported to be very close to that of base asphalt binders even
though there is a small loss of mass [21]. Rahman et al. (2017)
investigated the empirical and rheological properties of asphalt
binders modified with WCO, crumb rubber and palm oil fuel ash
(POFA). The incorporation of 15% modifier as a replacement for
base asphalt binder produced equal or better stability, flow and
rutting resistance performance [22]. Several models have been
developed for predicting the rheological properties of base asphalt
binders [23–25]. Even though very little research has been carried
out on the modeling of rheological properties of bio-asphalt bin-
ders, extensive experimental studies have been carried out to
determine the rheological behavior of bio-asphalt binders and
the feasibility of using these binders in pavement applications.
Artificial neural network (ANN) is a popular computational tool
for solving complex problems in preference to conventional tech-
niques, and has been used to solve several civil engineering prob-
lems that cannot be easily solved using conventional techniques
and engineering mechanics approaches. It is a very effective tech-
nique for engineering applications as it has an acceptable degree of
accuracy, particularly for civil engineering problems [24]. In recent
years, many studies have used ANN to develop prediction models
for asphalt binders and mixtures for application in pavement engi-
neering [27–30]. Kok et al. [31] used ANN to develop a model for
predicting the |G*| of conventional and SBS modified asphalt bin-
ders. The study used a 50/70 penetration grade asphalt binder,
and the data for the |G*| and d of conventional and SBS-modified
asphalt binder were obtained from experimental works which
used the DSR machine. The inputs for the ANN layers are testing
temperature, load frequency and SBS contents, whereas the output
layer parameter is the complex modulus. The Levenberg Mar-
quardt (LM), scaled conjugate gradient and Pola Ribiere conjugate
gradient algorithms were used as variants of the algorithm. A tan-
gent sigmoid function was also used for the output and hidden lay-
ers. The statistical indicators used to compare the measured values
with the predicted values to validate the model are root mean
square (RMS), coefficient of variation (COV), and correlation coeffi-
cient (R2). The LM algorithm was found to be the most appropriate
topology with a mean R value of 0.997, mean RMS value of 0.0039,
and COV mean value of 20.24. Dhawo [32] evaluated the effects of
2
Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
nanosilica (NS) on the rheological performance of polymer modi-
fied binder (PMB), where ANN was used to predict the |G*| and d
of nanosilica-polymer modified binders (NS-PMBs) at different
temperatures, loading frequencies, and nanosilica concentrations.
The study employed a feed forward back propagation learning
technique. The LM and gradient descent (GDA) algorithms were
used in the training stage. Varying number of neurons were used
for each algorithm and the optimal number of neurons was identi-
fied based on maximum efficiency and minimum MSE during the
testing stage. It was concluded that ANN is one of the methods
with the highest accuracy for modeling and predicting the |G*|
and d of NS-PMB.
The testing of rheological properties of asphalt binder is expen-
sive, time consuming and requires skilled operators [23,31]. Fur-
thermore, the use of bio-binder as a partial replacement for
petroleum-based binder can complicate engineering properties
because of the different and complicated chemical component of
biomass sources [9]. As a consequence, a more in-depth knowledge
is required to evaluate the effect of replacing asphalt binder with
bio-binder through experimental investigation and modelling of
rheological properties [33]. In this regard, ANN modeling could
be a valuable alternative tool for quantifying the rheological prop-
erties of asphalts [24] and bio-asphalt binders. This study consists
of two main parts. The first part of this study evaluates the effect of
crude palm oil at varying concentrations of 0, 5, 10 and 15% by
weight of a 60/70 penetration grade binder before and after
short-term aging. The conventional properties, namely the pene-
tration, ring and ball temperature, penetration index and high-
temperature rheological properties, of the binders were investi-
gated. The second part uses the multilayer feed-forward neural
network approach to develop new and efficient models for predict-
ing the rheological properties of CPO modified asphalt binder in
terms of |G*| and d.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials and sample preparation
This study used a 60/70 penetration grade asphalt binder sup-
plied by Petronas Research and Scientific Services (PRSS), Malaysia.
The conventional and rheological characteristics of the base
asphalt binder were established based on the ASTM and AASHTO
standards shown in Table 1. The crude palm oil (CPO) was supplied
by Felcra Processing and Engineering Sdn. Bhd, Perak, Malaysia.
Table 2 presents the conventional and chemical characteristics of
the CPO. Crude palm oil was added as an extender at 0, 5, 10,
and 15% by weight of asphalt binder.
The base asphalt binder was heated in a 160 °C oven for 60 min
to make it sufficiently fluid for mixing. A homogeneous blend of
bio-asphalt binders and CPO was obtained by mixing in a high
shear mixer at 1000 rpm mixing speed for 1 h at a temperature
Table1
Conventional and rheological properties of base asphalt binder.
Test Test Requirements Results
standard
Penetration, at 25 °C, 0.1 mm ASTM D5 Min. 60 dmm 60
Ring and Ball Temperature, °C ASTM D36 Min. 49 °C 49
Ductility at 25 °C, cm ASTM D113 Min.100 cm ˃100
Penetration Index, PI – –
1.04
Mass loss, % ASTM D113 Max. 1%
0.12
G*/sind, kPa, at 64 °C and 10 rad/ ASTM Min. 1 kPa 1.03
sec D7175-15
RTFO - G*/sind, kPa, at 64 °C and ASTM Min. 2.2 kPa 3.2
10 rad/sec D7175-15
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al. Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 2
Physicochemical properties of crude palm oil (CPO) and its components [34].

Characteristics Value
Appearance Deep orange-red color
Density at 40 °C 0.899–0.920
Softening point, °C 33–40
Refractive index at 50 °C 1.449–1.455
Acid value, mg KOH/ g oil 2–15
Typical solid fat content at 40 °C 1 – 6%
Carotene content 0.03 – 0.15%
Iodine value 50.0 – 55.0
Saponification value, mg KOH/ g oil 190–209
Nitrogen, % 0.41
Carbon, % 76.44
Hydrogen, % 13.14
Sulfur, % 0.019

Fig. 2. Phase angle of unaged bio-asphalt binders versus CPO content at various
Table 3 temperatures.
Conventional properties of base and bio-asphalt binders.

Test / Penetration, Softening Penetration

Sample at 25 °C, 0.1 mm Point, °C Index, PI
0% CPO 60 49
1.04
5% CPO 67 46
1.59
10% CPO 146 35
3.6
15% CPO 150 32
5.18

of 140 °C in accordance with the previous studies conducted on

bio-asphalt binder [35].

2.2. Conventional physical tests

The penetration grade and ring and ball temperature tests are
the most frequently used conventional tests for determining the
Fig. 3. |G*| of RTFO-aged bio-asphalt binders versus CPO content at various
consistency of base and bio-asphalt binders [36]. The penetration temperatures.
index (PI) was calculated and analyzed using the data obtained
from the penetration and softening point tests [34]. The penetra-
tion grade test was conducted at 25 °C according to ASTM D5
[37] to determine the hardness and consistency of the asphalt bin-
der before and after modification with CPO. A 1 mm-diameter nee-
dle under a load of 100 g was dropped for 5 s into the asphalt
binder specimen. The average of three readings for each sample
was recorded to the nearest whole unit. The ring and ball temper-
ature test of the base and bio-asphalt binders was carried out
according to ASTM D36 [38] to establish the binders’ consistency

Fig. 4. Phase angle of RTFO-aged bio-asphalt binders versus CPO content at various
temperatures.

at high-temperature before and after modification with CPO. The

softening point was identified as the temperature at which the
asphalt binder specimen is no longer able to sustain the weight
of a 3.5 g steel ball at a uniform temperature rate of 5 °C /min.
The temperature susceptibility of the base and bio-asphalt binders
was evaluated by calculating the penetration index [34]. The lower
the PI value, the higher the temperature sensitivity. Eq. (1) was
Fig. 1. |G*| of unaged bio-asphalt binders versus CPO content at various
used to calculate the penetration index by using the penetration
temperatures. values at 25 °C and the result of ring and ball temperature test.

3
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al. Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 5. |G*| and d of ANN architecture for unaged and RTFO-aged binders.

Fig. 6. ANN performance for unaged binders a) |G*|, b) d.

Fig. 7. ANN performance for RTFO-aged binders a) |G*|, b) d.

1952
500  LogPen
20SP 2.4. Rheological properties tests

PI ¼
50  LogPen
SP
120
where pen is penetration value at 25 °C and SP is the ring and ball
temperature in °C.
2.3. Rolling thin film oven (RTFO) test
The RTFO test was carried out in the laboratory to simulate the
short-term aging of asphalt binders during the production and con-
struction of hot mix asphalt in the field. The test was carried out in
accordance with ASTM standard D2872 [39]. Conventional asphalt
binder and bio-asphalt samples were prepared in a 163 °C oven by
exposing the binders to a continuous air flow for 85 min. The rhe-
ological properties of the unaged asphalt binders were compared
with those of the short-term aged binders.
ð1Þ
The rheological properties of base and bio-asphalt samples
were established in order to understand the viscoelastic behaviour
of the binders when subjected to dynamic loading at various tem-
peratures [41,41]. DSR is an instrument used to characterize the
viscoelastic properties of base and bio-asphalt binders at different
temperatures and load frequencies (times of loading). This study
used the kinexus Pro+ rheometer to establish the rheological prop-
erties of base and bio-asphalt binders under two conditions,
namely unaged and RTFO-aged condition, based on ASTM D7175-
15 [42]. The temperature sweep test was carried out at a frequency
of 1.59 Hz (10 rad/s) to assess the rheological properties of base
and bio-asphalt binders. The test was carried out at a temperature
of between 40 and 76 °C with a 25 mm geometry diameter and
1 mm gap as stipulated by the standard requirements. The |G*|
4
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al. Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 8. Experimental values versus predicted |G*| values of unaged binders.

and d of the base and bio-asphalt binders were determined for the number of neurons was determined based on the maximum effi-
concentration of 0 to 15% CPO by weight of base asphalt binder. ciency and minimum MSE during the testing phase.
The performance of the model was established based on the val-
2.5. Multilayer feed-forward neural network ues of R2 and MSE. The R2 and MSE are expressed as follows:

MATLAB mathematical software version R2015b was used to

Pn
identify the appropriate ANN models for predicting the |G*| and d i¼1 ðoi
t i Þ2
of bio-asphalt binders. The input data was obtained from the rhe-
MSE ¼ ð2Þ
n
ological properties experiment. The most frequently used ANN net-
work for making prediction, namely the multilayer feed forward
network [32,43], was used as a learning method in this study. P
ANN may contain one or more hidden layers but theoretical work ðo
t Þ2
R2 ¼ P ð3Þ
has shown that one hidden layer is sufficient for estimating any ðo
omean Þ2
complex nonlinear function [23,43]. The number of hidden layers
between the input and output layers can be selected based on
the accuracy required for the output. The input parameters in this where, o is the output parameter, t is the target outputs, omean is the
study are CPO concentration and temperature of the rheological average of outputs, and n is the overall number of data sets.
tests while the outputs are |G*|and d. R2 is the correlation between the predicted and actual values.
The log-sigmoid function was used in the output layer and the An R2 value close to 1 indicates a good agreement between the pre-
hidden layers for all established models. The nonlinear nature of dicted and the experimental values. Similarly, a lower mean square
the log-sigmoid function improves the performance of ANN. This error (MSE) value indicates a smaller error in the predicted values.
study used the Levenberg Marquardt (LM) training function Therefore, smaller MSE value and higher R2 value indicate a good
together with the GDM adaptation learning function. The optimal model performance and better accuracy of the predicted outputs.
5
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al.
Fig. 9. Experimental values versus predicted d values of unaged binders.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Conventional characteristics
Table 3 presents the conventional properties of bio-asphalt bin-
ders. The incorporation of higher amounts of CPO produced higher
penetration value and lower softening point and penetration index
values. However, the incorporation of 5% CPO resulted in a very
small change in the conventional properties when compared to
those of the base binder. Even though lower percentages of CPO
can be used as a partial replacement for the base binder, the incor-
poration of higher percentages of CPO without a polymer would
most probably have an adverse impact on the binders’ physical
properties, especially in tropical countries where pavement tem-
perature is high. Based on the specifications, the binder modified
with 5% CPO has a penetration value of 67 dmm, which is almost
identical with the 60 dmm penetration value of the base binder;
this indicates that the modified binder retains the 60/70 penetra-
tion grade of base asphalt binder. The penetration index of 5%
CPO bio-asphalt binder is (
1.59), which is within the required
(
2 to 2) for temperature susceptibility. The softening point of
5% CPO bio-asphalt binder is slightly lower compared to that of
the base binder. Result of the analysis shows that base asphalt bin-
der can be modified with 5% CPO without adversely affecting the
binders’ physical properties in high-temperature pavement
applications.
3.2. Rheological properties of unaged binders
Figs. 1 and 2 present the plot of |G*| and d of unaged base binder
and bio-asphalt binders versus temperature, respectively. It can be
seen that the |G*| and d remain almost unchanged for the base
6
Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
asphalt binder modified with up to 5% of CPO, although the incor-
poration of higher percentages of CPO resulted in reduced |G*| and
larger d. This is most probably due to the higher aromatics content
in bio-oil compared to the content in the base binder [33].
The incorporation of between 5 and 10% CPO caused a higher
reduction in |G*| and higher increase in d, although there is a slight
reduction in |G*| and a small increase in d with higher CPO content.
Generally, higher temperature resulted in lower |G*| and higher d.
The binder with 5% CPO has the same |G*| value as the control
asphalt binder although the value increased at intermediate tem-
perature. This indicates that CPO is a good bio-oil alternative for
the partial replacement for petroleum-based binder without
changing the binder’s rutting and fatigue resistance properties.
Higher test temperatures produced higher phase angle although
the phase angle for the 5% CPO asphalt binders decreased at inter-
mediate temperature compared to that of the control binder. This
indicates that the addition of up to 5% crude palm oil improves
the G* and d at intermediate temperatures, which in turn enhance
the asphalt binder’s rutting properties. The reduced |G*| at high
CPO content (more than 5%) enhanced the asphalt binder’s fatigue
properties. These findings are in agreement with those made by
[35] which showed similar |G*| and d behavior of bio-asphalt bin-
der incorporated with bio-oil extracted from palm oil empty fruit
bunch.
3.3. Rheological properties of RTFO-aged binders
Figs. 3 and 4 show the |G*| and d of RTFO-aged base binder and
bio-asphalt binders at various temperatures, respectively. It can be
seen that higher CPO content resulted in reduced |G*| and higher d.
This is most probably due to the higher aromatics content in bio-oil
compared to the content in the base asphalt binder [33]. In con-
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al.
Fig. 10. Experimental values versus predicted |G*| values of RTFO-aged binders.
trast, the binder modified with 5% CPO has a lower d value than
that of the base binder, which may be due to the compatibility of
CPO with base asphalt binder at lower CPO content. The addition
of 5 and 10% CPO resulted in even smaller |G*| values and larger
d values, although higher CPO content caused a slight decrease in
|G*| and larger d. This indicates that the addition of CPO does not
have a significant effect on aging, especially at higher CPO content.
Higher temperature produced lower |G*| value and higher d value,
indicating the consistent effect of CPO on the rheological properties
of base asphalt binder before and after aging. This indicates that
bio-asphalt binders modified with CPO have a consistent rutting
resistance. In addition, the smaller complex modulus at high CPO
content (more than 5%) enhanced the asphalt binder’s fatigue
properties. This is in agreement with the findings made by [20]
that showed an almost similar trend for the |G*| and d of a bioas-
phalt binder modified with waste vegetable oil. It can be concluded
that the reduced |G*| and larger d of bio-asphalt binders could
enhance the workability of the binder, which in turn improve mix-
ture durability and lower the mixing and compaction temperatures
of asphalt mixes.
7
Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
3.4. ANN model analysis
The accuracy of an ANN model is influenced by the network
architecture. There is no standard for the number of neurons in
the hidden layers. In this study, an ANN with 3 and 11 neurons
for the first and second hidden layers, respectively, have been
shown to be the optimal topology for |G*| and d of unaged and
RTFO-aged bioasphalt binders, as can be seen in Fig. 5. Figs. 6
and 7 present the results of ANN training performance for unaged
and RTFO-aged binders, respectively. The best validation perfor-
mance for unaged binders based on mean square error (MSE) is
7.9487  10
5 at epoch 1000 for |G*| and 0.0015984 at epoch
108 for d. The best validation performance for RTFO-aged binders
are 0.0033017 at the epoch 1000 and 0.00065665 at epoch 615
for G* and d, respectively.
Based on the difference between the predicted and actual val-
ues of |G*| and d in unaged and RTFO-aged conditions, the pro-
posed neural network is able to learn the relationship between
CPO content and test temperature as input parameters and |G*|
and d as output parameters. The values of |G*| and d determined
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al.
Fig. 11. Experimental values versus predicted d values of RTFO-aged binders.
by the ANN model are close to the experimental values, which is an
indication of high prediction accuracy.
Figs. 8 and 9 show the relationship between the predicted val-
ues generated by the developed ANN models with the actual values
from experimental work of unaged binders. The predicted values
are very close to the actual values, indicating a strong correlation
between CPO content and test temperature as input and |G*| and
d as outputs. The R2 and MSE values were used to determine the
significance of the developed ANN models. Fig. 8 shows that the
R2 values for the training, testing, and validation of the complex
modulus for the ANN model are 0.99994, 1 and 1, respectively.
Fig. 9 shows that the R2 values for training, testing, and validation
of the phase angle for the ANN model are 0.99976, 0.99995 and
0.99995, respectively. The R2of the ANN modeling is greater than
0.99% for all data sets for |G*| and d. This indicates the ability of
the developed ANN model to represent at least 99% of the experi-
mental results, and thus can be used to make an accurate predic-
8
Ain Shams Engineering Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
tion. These results are consistent with those obtained by [24]
which showed that the behaviour of |G*| and d of the modified
asphalt binder are similar with those of nano-silica.
Figs. 10 and 11 show the relationship of the values predicted by
the developed ANN models and the actual values from the experi-
mental work of RTFO-aged binders. Similar with the unaged bin-
ders, the predicted values are almost identical with the actual
values, thus indicating a strong correlation between CPO content
and test temperature in short term aging condition. The R2 values
for training, testing, and validation of the complex modulus for the
ANN model of RTFO-aged binders are 0.99999, 1 and 0.99999,
respectively. Fig. 11 shows that the R2 values for training, testing,
and validation of the phase angle for the ANN model are
0.99997, 0.99999 and 0.9999, respectively. The R2 of the RTFO-
aged binders determined using ANN modeling is also greater than
0.99% for all data set of |G*| and d. This indicates the ability of the
developed ANN model to represent the experimental results for an
A.M. Al-Sabaeei, M.B. Napiah, M.H. Sutanto et al.
accurate prediction of |G*| and d bio-asphalt binders under short
term aging condition.
4. Conclusion
This research has investigated the base and rheological proper-
ties of unaged and RTFO-aged bio-asphalt binders incorporated
with CPO. A multilayer feed-forward neural network method was
used to develop the models for establishing the rheological perfor-
mance of bio-asphalt binders in terms of |G*| and d at varying CPO
contents and test temperatures. The base and rheological proper-
ties of bio-asphalt binders with low CPO content are almost similar
as those of the base binder; however, the binders incorporated
with more than 5% CPO have a smaller complex modulus value.
The optimum CPO content was determined to be 5%. The experi-
mental values of |G*| and d were compared with the predicted val-
ues generated by the ANN models by using the R2 correlation
coefficient and mean square error (MSE). The unaged binders have
R2 and MSE, complex modulus and phase angle values of 0.9999,
0.9996, 7.9487  10
5 and 0.0015948, respectively. The R2, MSE,
|G*| and d of the RTFO-aged bio-binders are 0.99998, 0.99992,
0.0033017 and 0.00065665, respectively. It can be concluded that
the proposed multilayer feed-forward neural network technique
is satisfactory for a fast and accurate modeling of the |G*| and d
of bio-asphalt binders. The experimental values are almost similar
with the values predicted by the ANN models. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the developed ANN models are important tools for
determining whether CPO should be used as an extender in asphalt
binders.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Universiti
Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) for providing all necessary facilities
for conducting this research and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
(UKM) for the financial support of this work (GUP-2018-094).
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