RHEOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL, ENGINEERING AND PERFORMANC PROPERTIES OF POLYMER MODIFIED BITUMINOUS MIXTURE

Several studies were conducted to improve the performance of bituminous concrete
mixture in order to minimize the pavement distresses namely permanent deformation
and fatigue on the highway pavements. The introduction of polymer modified binder
as bituminous paving material was considered as a promising solution in response to
increasing traffic wheel loads and changes associated with environmental conditions.
Although extensive work was done on polymer modified bitumen, but still there is
a need to investigate the modification in terms of their rheological and morphological
behavior. The investigation presented herein, is focused on the performance
characteristics of the modified binder as revealed by rheological behavior. Rheology
of the polymer modified binder is studied in context with its chemical and
morphological analysis.
This research study is split in two parts. The first part deals with the complete
characterization of virgin 80/100 pen bitumen along with polymer modified bitumen
(PP & LLDPE). All characterization tests were carried out at ambient temperature and
on unaged binders. Only the test for rheological behavior using DSR was conducted
on aged and unaged binders.
The second part of this study deals with the preparation of specimen for
performance testing. All specimens for performance tests were prepared at optimum
binder content obtained from Marshall Mix design procedure. For fatigue testing
additional plus and minus optimum binder concentration was used.