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. 2021 Apr 1;14(7):1734.
doi: 10.3390/ma14071734.

Experimental Study of Tensile Properties of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Modified Asphalt Binders

Paweł Mieczkowski  1 , Bartosz Budziński  1 , Mieczysław Słowik  2 , Jan Kempa  3 , Wojciech Sorociak  4
Affiliations

Experimental Study of Tensile Properties of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Modified Asphalt Binders

Paweł Mieczkowski et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

The requirements imposed on road pavements are ever increasing nowadays, necessitating the improvement of the properties of paving materials. The most commonly used paving materials include bituminous mixtures that are composed of aggregate grains bound by a bituminous binder. The properties of bitumens can be improved by modification with polymers. Among the copolymers used for modifying bitumens, styrene-butadiene-styrene, a thermoplastic elastomer, is the most commonly used. This article presents the results of tests conducted on bitumens modified with two types of styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymer (linear and radial). Two bitumen types of different penetration grades (35/50 and 160/220) were used in the experiments. The content of styrene-butadiene-styrene added to the bitumen varied between 1% and 6%. The results of the force ductility test showed that cohesion energy can be used for qualitative evaluation of the efficiency of modification of bitumen with styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymer. The determined values of the cohesion energy were subjected to the original analysis taking into account the three characteristic elongation zones of the tested binders. The performed analyses made it possible to find a parameter whose values correlate significantly with the content of styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymer in the modified bitumen. With smaller amounts of added modifier (approximately 2%), slightly better effects were obtained in the case of linear copolymer styrene-butadiene-styrene and for larger amounts of modifier (5-6%) radial copolymer styrene-butadiene-styrene was found to be more effective. This is confirmed by the changes in the binder structure, as indicated by the penetration index (PI).

Keywords: asphalt binder; force ductility test; modified bitumen; rheology; styrene–butadiene–styrene copolymer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Stress–strain relationship during tensioning of materials featuring very high viscoelastic strain (elastomers). Adapted from ref. [30,31].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example of relationship between the tensile force and elongation of a specimen of: (a) paving-grade (base) bitumen, (b) polymer-modified bitumen. Adapted from ref. [32].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structural formula SBS-L (high vinyl triblock). Reprinted from ref. [37].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Structural formula SBS-R (radial triblock). Reprinted from ref. [37].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Modification of bituminous binder with SBS copolymer in oil bath.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Force ductility test: (a) ductilometer, (b) test sample, (c) stretching of samples.
Figure 7
Figure 7
TR&B softening point of SBS-modified bitumens, error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Penetration at 25 °C of SBS-modified bitumens, error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Penetration at 10 °C of SBS-modified bitumens, error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Penetration index of SBS-modified bitumens.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Elastic recovery of SBS-modified bitumens, error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Load vs. elongation curves of paving grade bitumen 35/50.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Load vs. elongation curves of bitumen 35/50 modified with 5% of SBS-R copolymer.
Figure 14
Figure 14
The maximum tensile force of SBS-modified asphalt binders determined using the force ductility test, error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 15
Figure 15
Cohesion energy (ES*) determined in the force ductility test.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Cohesion energy of bitumens during stretching, taking account of the type of strain (as per Figure 2b), mean values, (a) bitumen 35/50, (b) bitumen 160/220.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Cohesion energy of bitumen during stretching in Area I (as per Figure 2b), error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 18
Figure 18
Cohesion energy of bitumen during stretching in Area II (as per Figure 2b), error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 19
Figure 19
Cohesion energy of bitumen during stretching in Area III (as per Figure 2b), error bars show a 95% confidence interval for the mean.
Figure 20
Figure 20
Values of the cohesion energy ratio (CER) done on the samples of polymer-modified bitumens in the force ductility test, calculated using Equation (5).
Figure 21
Figure 21
Values of CER* done on the samples of polymer-modified bitumens in the force ductility test, calculated using Equation (6).
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