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Influence of bitumen type and polymer dosage on the relaxation spectrum of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS)/styrene-butadiene (SB) modified bitumen

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Abstract

Modification using elastomeric thermoplastic polymers is commonly adopted to improve the high-temperature performance of paving bitumen. The performance of modified bitumen classified under the same grade is highly variable depending on the type of base bitumen, the polymer architecture, and its dosage. The current specification parameters are insensitive to such variability. Identification of a suitable set of parameters that can quantify the changes in rheological properties due to various interaction mechanisms of bitumen with modifier thus becomes necessary. In this study, the base bitumen obtained using two different processes, namely air rectification and component blending, are considered. Though the same grade of bitumen produced using both processes is considered, the material compositions are different, and this necessitated the use of different polymer architectures (diblock and triblock SBS) for the two binders. Three different dosages are used for each modifier. A stress relaxation experiment is conducted, and the peak modulus and stress relaxation time are determined. In addition, the continuous relaxation spectrum and the associated parameters are computed. The base bitumen and the polymer architecture of the corresponding polymer influenced the stress relaxation response substantially. These factors also influenced the response of the material captured using the relaxation spectrum and exhibited interesting insights regarding the influence of temperature.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

The codes used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors thank the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for funding the project under the Extra Mural Research Grant (now Core Research Grant) [No: EMR/2017/004702].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    M. R. Nivitha

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    R. Devika & J. Murali Krishnan

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Mar Baselios College of Engineering and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    Neethu Roy

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Devika R., Nivitha M. R., and Neethu Roy. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Nivitha M. R. and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Neethu Roy.

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Nivitha, M.R., Devika, R., Murali Krishnan, J. et al. Influence of bitumen type and polymer dosage on the relaxation spectrum of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS)/styrene-butadiene (SB) modified bitumen. Mech Time-Depend Mater 27, 79–98 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11043-021-09531-y

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