Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
DOI 10.1617/s11527-015-0659-6
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
New experimental methods for characterizing formation
and decay of foam bitumen
Biruk W. Hailesilassie . Martin Hugener .
Andrea Bieder . Manfred N. Partl
Received: 10 April 2015 / Accepted: 22 June 2015 / Published online: 8 July 2015
Ó RILEM 2015
Abstract Formation and decay of foam bitumen is a
highly dynamic temperature dependent process which
makes characterization difficult. In this research, new
experimental tools were applied for characterizing the
bitumen foam during the foaming process. Ultrasonic
sensors were used for accurately monitoring the
expansion and decay of foam bitumen as a function
of time. Assessment of foam bitumen viscosity was
performed using high frequency torsional rheometer
and in situ observation by X-ray radiography. A high-
speed camera was applied for examining the foam
bitumen stream right at the nozzle revealing that foam
bitumen at a very early stage contains fragmented
pieces of irregular size rather resembling a liquid than
foam. Moreover, infrared thermal images were taken
Electronic supplementary material The online version of
this article (doi:10.1617/s11527-015-0659-6) contains supple-
mentary material, which is available to authorized users.
B. W. Hailesilassie (&)
Infrastructure Engineering, Division of Highway and
Railway Engineering, School of Architecture and the
Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH),
100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
e-mail: biruk.hailesilassie@abe.kth.se
M. Hugener
Road Engineering/Sealing Components, EMPA, Swiss
Federal Laboratories for Material Science and
Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 129, 8600 Duebendorf,
Switzerland
e-mail: Martin.Hugener@empa.ch
for obtaining information on the in situ surface
temperature of foam bitumen during the hot foaming
process. The result showed that the average surface
temperature of foam bitumen depends on the water
content of the bitumen and bubble size distribution,
108 and 126 °C for 4 and 1 wt% (by weight) water
content respectively. The residual water content in the
decaying foam bitumen was determined by thermo-
gravimetric analysis. The result demonstrated that
residual water content depends on the initial water
content, and was found to be between 38 and 48 wt%
of the initial water content of 4–6 wt%. Finally, X-ray
computed tomography was applied for examining the
decay of foam bitumen revealing that the bubbles of
foam bitumen remain trapped close to the surface of
the foam bitumen.
Keywords Foam bitumen characterization  Process
monitoring  X-ray analysis  Thermal properties
A. Bieder
AmmannSchweiz AG, Eisenbahnstrasse 25,
4901 Langenthal, Switzerland
e-mail: andrea.bieder@ammann-group.com
M. N. Partl
KTH Stockholm, Division of Highway and Railway
Engineering, Director Road Engineering/Sealing
Components, EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for
Material Science and Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 129,
8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland
e-mail: manfred.Partl@empa.ch
2440
1 Introduction
Foam bitumen allows to construct asphalt pave-
ments at reduced temperature in terms of mixture
production, transport, laying and compaction [1].
Reducing production and compaction temperatures
by using warm mix asphalt (WMA) in place of hot
mix asphalt (HMA) is environmentally beneficial
since it decreases fuel or energy consumption,
reduces emissions of CO2 and reduces smoke from
mixing plant and improves working conditions at
the paving site [2, 3].
However, experience shows that foam asphalt
produced at lower temperature still requires improve-
ments to meet the requirements for heavy duty roads.
Higher void content as compared to HMA and
incomplete coating of large aggregates are main issues
of enhancement. Foam bitumen is a mixture of air,
water and bitumen. It is produced through injecting
small quantities of water, typically 1.0–6.0 % by
weight of the bitumen, into hot bitumen at a temper-
ature 160–180 °C. The bitumen expands to about 5–15
times its original volume [4] forming a foam, which is
highly efficient in wetting and coating the surface of
fine particles [3]. When the foam collapses, most of the
water is lost as steam, leaving residual bitumen with
properties similar to the original bitumen [5].
Foam bitumen can be characterized by different
parameters such as maximum expansion ratio (ERm),
minimum viscosity, foaming index (FI) [3], coefficient
of foamability and half-life (s), which is defined as the
time that the expanded bitumen takes to settle to half
its expanded volume [6]. The half-life is used to
explain the stability of foam bitumen in general. The
desirable design value of the half-life is difficult to
determine since it varies with the addition of water.
The maximum expansion ratio (ERm = Vmax/Vo) is
determined by the ratio of the volume of the expanded
foam bitumen (Vmax) and the volume of the original
unfoamed bitumen (Vo). Both half-life (s) and ERm are
still taken as main indicators of foam quality, in spite
of the fact that these parameters have no direct link to
the physical properties of bitumen in the foam.
Sufficient expansion of the bitumen is required for
adequate coating of aggregates. Inadequate expansion
of foam bitumen lucks dispersion on the aggregate
during mixing [7]. The FI is the area under the curve of
the expansion ratio vs. time. This parameter needs
accurate measurement of the foam bitumen decay
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
curve. Earlier, the FI parameter was considered as a
good indicator of the foam quality since it is calculated
from the whole decay curve. However, it was found
that the FI concept cannot be applied for all types of
bitumen. The half-life is not always decreasing with
increasing ERm [8, 9]. Since half-life may increase or
decrease with increasing water content in the foam, it
is not a clear indicator for the stability of the foam
bitumen. Moreover, the rheology and stability of the
foam are mainly depending on the foam’s bubble size
distribution and liquid volume fraction, i.e. the ratio of
liquid volume to the total volume of the foam [10]. For
determining the rate of bubble growth in dry foam
(liquid volume fraction\1–30 %), the bubble size and
shape are crucial since the foam bubbles can contain
tetrahedral junctions and polyhedral faces. For wet
foam (liquid volume fraction [1–30 %) the influence
of the bubble shape is less significant since the bubbles
are expected to be more spherical [11]. Saleh [9] stated
that the optimum water content (WC) can be found
from rotational viscosity measurement (using Brook-
field rotational viscometer). The water content that
produces the lowest average viscosity over a period of
60 s is considered as optimum water content. This
means, if two different bitumens have the same
viscosity but different expansion ratio and half-life,
the mixing behavior of the foam bitumen can be
similar [9]. However the result could be in question,
since the rate of foam collapse and the moisture
content can influence the viscosity. Moreover, the
instrument used for measuring the viscosity may
distort the foam structure. In addition, locally deter-
mining the foam viscosity after a certain time of decay
may not give a reliable result since foam bitumen
contains a non-homogenous bubble size distribution
within its bulk volume. Moreover, foaming bitumen is
dynamic process with very quickly changing bubble
size distribution of the unstable foam. The coefficient
of foamability is defined as the ratio of maximum
expansion to the optimum water content at a given
bitumen temperature. Lesueur et al. [12] stated that
this coefficient is constant for a given bitumen type
and independent of foaming temperature but relies on
the type of nozzle used for foaming [12]. However, to
the best knowledge of the authors, up to now no more
detailed work is available on how the foam bitumen is
formed during the foaming process, how it changes
with time and which mechanisms are involved.
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
The main aim of this study is to investigate the
influence of water content and bitumen temperature on
foam bitumen. Foam bitumen characterizing param-
eters such as expansion ratio and half-life were
measured by accurately monitoring the foaming
process as a function of time. In addition, the residual
water content in the collapsed foam was determined.
Moreover, the foam bitumen at the spraying nozzles
was observed for answering the question at what
moment foam bitumen is formed.
2 Experimental method
Generally, expansion ratio and half-life are measured
by placing a foam ruler next on the side of a container
filled with foam bitumen as shown in Fig. 1a. The half-
life is determined with help of stopwatch. This
measurement is simple and practical. However, since
the result can be affected by the operators skill and
experience, repeatability and accuracy are questionable
Fig. 1 a Setup of foam bitumen expansion and decay measurement using ultra-sonic senor, b schematic of the high speed camera
setup, thermocouple arrangement, c setup one, d setup two
2441
[13]. In this study, measurement of foam bitumen
height over time during foam formation and decay was
improved experimentally by using ultra-sonic sensor
technology (BaumerÒ standard ultra-sonic sensor). The
setup of the measurement is shown in Fig. 1a. The
repeatability of the ultra-sonic measurement technique
was compared with the conventional foam ruler
measurement. Expansion ratio and half-life were
determined accurately by using an ultra-sonic sensor
for four different types of penetration grade bitumen as
characterized in Table 1. Foaming was conducted at
bitumen temperatures 160 and 180 °C with water
contents of 1, 2, 4 and 6.6 wt% (by weight).
Foaming characterization can be affected by
parameters such as bitumen type, grade and additive.
Special anti-foaming agents, such as silicon com-
pounds used in the refining process of bitumen may
affect the desired foaming characteristics [14, 15].
Hence, gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) was
used to assure that no polymer additives were present
in the bitumen. This method is commonly used to
2442
Table 1 Penetration and softening point of the different types
of bitumen used for foaming
Bitumen type A B C D
Provider Nynas Grisard AG Nynas Shell
Penetration (*0.1 mm) 81 51 64 51
Softening point (°C) 45.3 51.1 47.1 50.5
determine the composition of bitumen, detect possible
inclusion of impurities, and separate polymer and
asphalt components in polymer modified bitumen [16,
17]. GPC was conducted using HPLC-pump Merck
655A-12 equipment, using eluent solvent the high
purity tetrahydrofuran. Diode array detector (DAD)
was applied with a wave range of 210–290 nm,
sampling rate 2/s and resolution 1.2 nm.
In order to study the state of foam bitumen (bitumen
A) when leaving the nozzle, a high-speed camera was
used. Two different setups were chosen for observing
the foam bitumen at the four nozzles with 3 mm
diameter openings. The first setup covered a field of
view (FOV) of 120.0 9 120.0 mm with a spatial
resolution of 2016 9 2016 pixels, corresponding to
*60 lm/pixel. The second setup focused on a FOV of
39.0 9 39.0 mm with a spatial resolution of
2016 9 2016 pixels, corresponding to *19 lm/pixel.
The bitumen temperature in both cases was 160 °C
and the water content by weight of the bitumen was
4 wt%. The pressure in the expansion chamber was set
to *5 bar and the spraying rate to 100 g/s. During
measurement, the images were captured at
1280.41 Hz with 20 ls exposure time. The schematic
setup of the measurement is shown in Fig. 1b. The
image plane of the high-speed camera was aligned and
focused on the frontal surface of the foam bitumen
stream.
It is well known that foam bitumen decays in a
highly dynamic and unstable process. The temperature
of the foam can influence the viscosity of the foam and
therefore the mixing and coating process. Hence, the
foam bitumen temperature was measured at specific
positions by using a series of thermocouples in two
different setups as shown in Fig. 1c and d. Simulta-
neously the expansion and decay of the foam bitumen
was measured with an ultra-sonic sensor. In the first
setup, three thermocouples were lined on the side of
the vessel that captured the foam. Two of them were
placed on the bottom and one was used to measure the
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
temperature at the tip of the nozzle. Spacing and order
of each thermocouple is depicted in Fig. 1c. In the
second setup, thermocouples were arranged in the
center and at the side of the vessel as presented in
Fig. 1d. The foam bitumen was produced with bitu-
men B (50/70 binder) at 160 °C with 2 and 4 wt% (by
weight) water content. The vessel for capturing the
foam was at room temperature.
In addition to the thermocouples of the second setup
in Fig. 1d, a Testo 885 thermal camera with image
resolution of 640 9 480 pixels and thermal sensitivity
\30 mK thermo was used for measuring the surface
temperature of the foam.
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) records the
weight changes in a sample with respect to temper-
ature. Changes refer either to desorption of volatile
components from the sample (negative weight
change) or to absorption of gaseous components from
the atmosphere surrounding the sample (positive
weight change). TGA is commonly used for analyzing
thermal degradation of cellulose, polymers and poly-
mer modified bitumen, that occurs at several consec-
utive stages [18, 19]. Research by Jenkins [3] shows
that at state of energy equilibrium the surface tension
effect in the foam bitumen can be ignored, since the
energy loss from surface tension is an order of
magnitude lower than from the pressure in the bubbles.
If all the foaming water is converted into vapor,
ideally, at least double of the actual measured
expansion ratio would occur. Therefore, less expan-
sion means that not all water was used or steam got lost
during the foaming of the bitumen [3]. In this paper
TGA was applied to determine the residual water after
the decay of foam bitumen. TGA 209 F1 (NETZCH)
equipment was chosen in nitrogen atmosphere for
heating the samples to the required temperature. The
foam bitumen samples were taken with aluminum
cans right after the foaming. On average, 93 ± 1.2 mg
of bitumen B (harder binder) was used for determining
the water content. The foam bitumen was heated from
23 to 900 °C in three different steps: the first step
consisted of a temperature increase from 23 to 110 °C
with 20 °C/min, the second step was a constant
temperature phase of 110 °C for 2 h and the third
step was again an increase of temperature with 20 °C/
min but from 100 to 900 °C. From the second step the
water released from the foam bitumen could be
measured whereas from the third step the amount of
residues could be determined and as the temperature
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454 2443

increases to 900 °C the bitumen completely decom- constant k, motion of mass x, frequency w, periodic
poses, which helps to detect presence of inclusion or force F0 and time t.
additives in the bitumen.
d2 x dx
Moreover to detect bubbles inside the decaying m þ c þ kx ¼ F0 eiwt : ð1Þ
foam, which possibly contains encapsulated water, 3D dt2 dt
X-ray computed tomography (CT) scan experiments The amplitude x0 of the oscillation can be written as
were conducted. 3D CT scanning conducted by Kutay follows
[20] with freezed foam bitumen sample using liquid
F0=k
nitrogen, it is reported that when using harder binder, x0 ¼ rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð2Þ
  2  2  2
the amount of bubbles remain in the decay can reach 1  =w w þ 2nw =w0
up to 0.6 % by volume compared to 1.5 wt% (by
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
weight) initial water content used for foaming the where w0 ¼ k=m is the resonance frequency and the
bitumen. In this research, freezing technique was pffiffiffiffiffiffi
damping of the system reads n ¼ c= km.
attempted by using liquid nitrogen. However, during
The phase angle for the above forced damped
freezing the foam bitumen was collapsing. In addition,
oscillator equation is written as follows
cracks on the bitumen foam surface were observed 0 1
after freezing the foam bitumen. Therefore, CT 2n w=w 0
scanning was conducted without freezing the decaying / ¼ tan1 @ 2
A: ð3Þ
foam bitumen. Foam bitumen samples were taken 1  w w2
0
using 36 mm in diameter and 25 mm tall aluminum
As shown in Fig. 2a damping is inversely propor-
cans and stored at room temperature for about 4 h
tional to the slope of / (w) at resonance where
prior to X-ray CT scanning. For this experiment, a
w/w0 = 1. It follows from the frequency difference
20 keV cone beam was used, with covering a viewing
Dw between frequencies corresponding to phase angles
volume 41 9 41 9 41 mm. 1000 9 1000 9 1000
/ = p/2 ± D/. Figure 2b shows the amplitude x0 and
pixel volumes were scanned which corresponds to a
the change of phase angle /(w) as the damping factor n
spatial resolution of 41 lm.
increases from 0.1 to 2.0. The amplitude decreases with
In this study, a special high frequency torsional
increasing damping of the system.
rheometer (HFTR) shown in Sect. 3.5 was used to
monitor the viscosity of foam bitumen by applying
torsional vibrations at high frequencies. This HFTR
was already successfully used by Valtorta et al. [21] 3 Results and discussion
for measuring the change of viscoelastic properties of
asphalt plug joints on a motorway bridge. Moreover, 3.1 Expansion ratio and half-life
Dual [22] and Romoscanu et al. [23] used HFTR for
determining complex viscosity of fluids with Newto- The ultra-sonic sensor measurements were found
nian and viscoelastic properties. Valtorta and Mazza suitable for recording the history of the foam bitumen
[24] applied the HFTR for measuring the rheological during and after spraying until complete decay of the
properties of soft biological tissue. foam. The ultra-sonic sensor raw data are shown in
The measuring principle is as follows: when the Fig. 3a. They were smoothed with a moving average
fluid is brought into contact with HFTR, the oscillator filter according to in Eq. (4) by replacing each data
induces a shear flow with the fluid viscosity acting as point with the average of the neighboring data points
damping source for the oscillator. The dynamic defined within the span.
behavior of the fluid and the resonating oscillator is 1
quantified by the damping factor df and the resonant ys ðiÞ ¼ ðyði þ NÞ þ yði þ N  1Þ
2N þ 1 ð4Þ
frequency fres as explained in detail in references [22, þ    þ yði  NÞÞ
23].
The damping of the mechanical oscillator can be where ys is the smoothed data for the ith data point,
derived from Eq. 1 using a 1° of freedom damped N is the number of neighboring data points on either
oscillator with mass m, damping constant c, spring side of data point ys(i) and 2N ? 1 is the span. The
2444 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454

Fig. 2 a Schematic of phase angle as a function of frequency, b amplitude and phase angle of a forced vibration with increasing
damping factor

(a) (b)

18 0.9
16 0.8 A
absorbition unit (AU)

0.7 B
expansion ratio (ER)

14
C
12 0.6
D
10 0.5

8 0.4
foam ruler
0.3
6 ultrasonic sensor
0.2
4
0.1
2
0
0 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
minutes
water content (%)
(c) (d)
Fig. 3 a Raw data of ultra-sonic sensor for 4 wt% WC c comparison of expansion ratio using foam ruler and ultra-sonic
compared to the smoothed data, b expansion and decay of foam sensor, d gel-permeation chromatogram of different types of
bitumen at different water content of bitumen B at 160 °C, bitumen
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
span used in the analysis was 0.5 % of the total data
points and data acquisition was made at 100 Hz for all
measurements.
Measurement of the foam bitumen properties with
two ultra-sonic sensors from two different directions
showed similar expansion and decay curves. There-
fore, one ultra-sonic sensor was considered sufficient
for measuring foam expansion height and decay over
time. Repeatability measurements with the ultra-sonic
sensors at 4 wt% water content were conducted, the
results from five experiments indicate that the max-
imum expansion height of all repetitions was within
±0.5 cm of the average value 13.5 cm.
Foamability of bitumen can be influenced by a
number of factors, such as bitumen temperature, water
content, pressure under which the water and the
bitumen are injected in the expansion chamber and
presence of anti-foaming agent (silicon), bitumen
chemical composition related to origin of the binder
[7, 25]. In this research, the influence of water content,
bitumen temperature and bitumen type according to
Table 1 (harder and softer binder) on the expansion
ratio and half-life was investigated.
The expansion and decay curves depicted in Fig. 3b
for bitumen B result from the average of three tests.
Similar foam decay curves were found for all water
contents. The results of the ultra-sonic measurement
are comparable to the foam ruler measurement as
presented in Fig. 3c. The advantage of using ultra-
sonic sensor compared to foam ruler is that the
stability of the foam bitumen (half-life) can be
determined accurately whereas the accuracy of the
foam ruler measurement depends on personal skill and
the precision can be questionable. For the ultra-sonic
sensor measurement a minimum standard deviation of
0.28 was found for the foam with a mean expansion
ratio of 5.48 at 1.0 wt% water content. A maximum
standard deviation of 0.5 was found for the foam with
5 wt% water content and an expansion ratio of 13.79.
The gel-permeation chromatography results in
Fig. 3d shows comparable ultraviolet (UV) absorp-
tion, which is related to the molar mass of the bitumen.
From this experiment, it is confirmed that bitumen A,
B, C and D are not modified by polymers.
It was found that there was an instability problem of
the foaming unit for water contents below 1 wt% and
above 6.6 wt%. Expansion ratio and half-life were
determined for the different types of bitumen shown in
Table 1, at 1, 2, 4, 6.6 wt% water content combined
2445
with bitumen temperatures of 160 and 180 °C. In
general, the expansion ratio has increased with
increasing water content as indicated in Fig. 4a for
all types of bitumen. Increasing the water content from
1 to 2 wt% produced the highest expansion ratio
increase compared to increases of water content from
2 to 4 wt% WC and from 4 to 6 wt%. Therefore
increasing the water content does not proportionally
increase the expansion ratio. This can be related to the
increase of vapor pressure in the foam bubbles with
increasing water content, which leads to fast coales-
cence of the bubbles during expansion of the foam
bitumen.
Surface tension measurements by Jaroslaw and Jan,
showed that bitumen surface tension increases linearly
with decreasing temperature [26]. Moreover, during
the foaming process, the temperature of the bitumen
decreases from the contact of bitumen with the
foaming water at room temperature. Hence, the
surface tension can increase with the result that
bubbles tend to merge quickly and create unstable
foam. This can lead to less expansion of the foam
bitumen.
The results in Fig. 4b reveal that half-life is not a
clear indicator for the stability of foam bitumen,
except for 1 wt% WC. It was observed that the soft
binders, bitumen A and C are more stable compared to
bitumen B and D at 1 wt% water content. In general,
increasing the viscosity or using harder binder can
increase the foam stability. Stable foam can also be
achieved by slowing down the drainage process by
increasing the bulk viscosity or by increasing the
surface elasticity of the liquid [27]. The reason for the
instability of the harder binder can be attributed to the
origin of binder which is related to chemical compo-
sition, thus influencing the surface tension of bitumen.
In order to investigate the influence of temperature
increase on foam bitumen, foaming experiments were
conducted at 160 and 180 °C bitumen temperature in
combination with different water contents as indicated
in Fig. 4. The resulting relative increase of expansion
ratio due to a temperature increase from 160 to 180 °C
for different water contents is presented in Fig. 4c. A
temperature increase by 20 °C improved the expan-
sion ratio of bitumen B (harder binder) by about
40 ± 13 % and of bitumen A (softer binder) by
17 ± 4 %. Hence, increasing the bitumen temperature
can significantly increase the expansion ratio of harder
bitumen as compared to softer binder. This may be due
2446
(a)
Fig. 4 Foaming parameters for different types of bitumen A, B, C, D: a expansion ratio, b half-life of different types of bitumen,
c expansion ratio increase by changing the bitumen temperature from 160 to 180 °C
to the fact that low viscosity means less resistance
against vapor pressure, leading to quick coalescence or
disruption of bubbles particularly from softer binders.
A similar decay mechanism has been reported in Ref.
[28, 29] based on the X-ray radiograph images. On the
other hand, in case of the hard bitumen, increasing the
temperature reduces the viscosity and surface tension
to an extent that creates favorable condition for
bubbles expansion.
3.2 Observation of the foam bitumen stream
at the nozzle outlet with high-speed camera
Bitumen A was used in this experiment to observe the
foam bitumen stream at the outlet of the foaming
nozzle. The time indicated in Fig. 5 is measured after
the spraying started. As shown in Fig. 5a the image
taken with the first setup at 1.6 s reveals that the foam
flows in a stream when it comes out of the nozzle.
Water droplets were observed in the close-up of the
stream during spraying as depicted in Fig. 5b. This
shows that the evaporation of the water droplets is not
as fast and the foam is formed completely only
afterwards and not as in the expansion chamber of the
foam generator. With the second setup, shown in
Fig. 5d, it was found that the liquid bitumen is
fragmented into a number of small pieces. The
corresponding close-up in Fig. 5e reveals that the
bitumen foam stream contains bitumen clusters when
the foam bitumen comes out of the nozzle. This can
indicate that the two phases, bitumen and water, are
not mixed completely well in the expansion chamber.
In addition, the spraying rate could be too high (100 g/
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
60
expansion rao increase (% )
A
50
B
40
C
30
20
10
0
1 2 4 6.6
water content (%)
(b) (c)
s) for the two phases to mix well in the expansion
chamber before leaving the nozzle. This raises the
question, in which state water and bitumen are before
leaving the nozzle of the foam generator, specifically,
what happens, when bitumen and water come in
contact under high pressure (&5 bar) and a temper-
ature of 160 °C.
3.3 Temperature measurement during foam
bitumen formation and decay
For thermocouple arrangement according to setup one
(Fig. 1c), the measured temperatures using thermo-
couples for foam bitumen C at 2 wt% WC are shown
in Fig. 6. The maximum foam temperature profile is
constructed by connecting the maximum temperature
envelope of each curve. The temperature measurement
results from setup one in Fig. 6b indicate that the foam
temperature near to the nozzle tip is close to 150 °C
for 2 wt% WC and 146 °C for 4 wt% WC. As
presented for setup two in Fig. 6c, the foam temper-
ature remains close to 100 °C for 4 wt% WC during
the decay of the foam and above 116 °C for 2 wt%
WC These results show clearly the influence of water
content on foam bitumen temperature during the
decay. The difference in foam temperature curves of
the same water content in Fig. 6c can be related to
uneven distribution of water during the foaming
process, which leads to non-uniform temperature
distribution in the foam bitumen as shown in Fig. 7.
The thermal images for the surface temperature of
the foam bitumen during the decay after 7 and 12 s are
presented in Fig. 7. About 7 s after the start of
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
Fig. 5 Foaming of bitumen A at the nozzle opening; first setup:
a foam bitumen stream details at 4 wt% water content and
160 °C bitumen temperature, b a close-up of the stream at 1.6 s,
spraying the maximum expansion of the foam is
reached and after 12 s most of the decay is over.
Maximum peak temperature points on the thermal
images in Fig. 7b–e shows bubbles rising to the foam
bitumen surface and exploding. This indicates that the
bubbles temperature inside the foam is close to 140 °C
for 1 wt% WC and 125 °C for 4 wt% WC. The
average surface temperature for 1 wt% WC was found
to be 126 and 121 °C at 7 and 12 s respectively as
shown in Table 2. The results in Table 2 are deter-
mined by considering points every 0.6 mm in both
directions (X and Y- axis) over a 60 mm by 60 mm
surface size. In contrary to foam with 1 wt% water
content, the minimum temperature for 4 wt%
increases with time, for instance at 12 s, as shown in
2447
c a foam stream at 2.1 s; second setup: d a close-up of the
bitumen foam stream, e observed bubble cluster, f a closer view
of the foam stream at 2.1 s
Table 2. The high amount of water (4 wt%) used for
foaming significantly reduces the minimum bitumen
temperature after 7 s to 75 °C. According to Fig. 7b
and d compared to Fig. 7c and e, foaming with 1 wt%
WC produced a narrower range of surface tempera-
tures (139–100 °C) than foaming with 4 wt% WC
(125–75 °C). Moreover, the average temperature
(Table 2) found from thermal images during decay
of the foam bitumen are comparable to thermocouples
temperature data shown in Fig. 6c.
The thermal images indicate that the distribution
of maximum and minimum peak temperature
depends on the bubble size distribution. As demon-
strated in Ref. [28] and shown in Fig. 8f, the amount
of water used for foaming the bitumen influences
2448 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454

Fig. 6 a Foam bitumen

temperature and expansion
ratio for bitumen C at
different positions 1–6
(setup one), and the
reconstructed maximum
time–temperature profile for
2 wt% water content,
reconstructed temperature
data and expansion ratio for
2 and 4 wt% water content
for bitumen C, b setup one,
c setup two

Fig. 7 a Schematic of foam bitumen decay curve, b–e surface temperature distribution for bitumen C; at t1 and t2 for 1 and 4 wt% WC

the bubble size distribution. For instance, for coarsening process. The foam bitumen bubbles are
bitumen C when foaming with 4 wt% WC, rear- larger when using 4 wt% WC compared to 1 wt%
rangement of bubbles over time occurs due to a WC as seen in the X-ray radiography measurements
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454 2449

Table 2 Foam bitumen Water content, (wt%) 1 4

surface temperature data
found from the thermal Time, s (t1 and t2) t1 = 7 t2 = 12 t1 = 7 t2 = 12
images for bitumen C
Average temperature (°C) 126 122 108 105
Min temperature (°C) 116 102 75 90
Max temperature (°C) 139 132 125 120

presented in Fig. 8b and c. The bubbles are colored
according to their size. The corresponding bubble
area distribution for different water contents is
shown in Fig. 8d and e. Similarly, large areas of
peak temperatures were found when using high
water content (4 wt%) as compared to lower water
content (1 wt%), as presented in Fig. 7c and e. The
original gray scale image is overlaid over the
segmented image in Fig. 8a, to show the possible
separation of the two phases, the liquid bitumen and
the water vapor, using image analysis. More detail
information is presented in Ref. [28].

Fig. 8 a Foam bitumen

bubbles as seen from X-ray
image, b and c bubble
morphology at 7 s for 4 and
1 wt% water content
respectively, d and
e histogram for bubble area
distribution, f cumulative
area of bubbles vs. single
bubble area; all figures refer
to bitumen C
2450
3.4 Residual water in the foam bitumen decay
Typical heat mass loss curves of TGA for three
repeated tests are depicted in Fig. 9a and b. The result
shows that the repeatability of the TGA is good. In
order to determine the residual water left in the
decaying foam bitumen, TGA was performed for
different water contents, 1, 4 and 6 wt%. Three
measurements were conducted for each foaming
experiment. TGA curves for the mass loss of the
bitumen due to heating are presented in Fig. 9b. The
results of TGA in Fig. 9a shows that the mass loss
curves reach stable state within 4 h heating at 110 °C.
This suggests that all the remaining water in the
bitumen has evaporated within this time period.
Moreover, when increasing the temperature from
110 to 900 °C at a rate of 20 °C/min, the change in
bitumen mass is almost zero until the temperature
(a)
(c)
Fig. 9 a Heat mass loss curve as a function of time, b heat mass
loss and the rate of mass loss as a function temperature,
c average value of TGA curve during water dissipation from the
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
reaches 300 °C; above this temperature the bitumen
starts to decompose according to Fig. 9b. The residual
mass of bitumen after heating the bitumen at 900 °C is
close to 25 % in all cases of water content. The amount
of water remaining in the decayed foam bitumen is
about 38–48 % of the higher initial water contents of 4
to 6 wt% (as shown in Fig. 9c and d), whereas foam
decay in foam with less initial water content (1 wt%)
for foaming results in residual water content that is
nearly 20 % of the initial water. As presented in Ref.
[3]. This can be related to the latent heat energy of
steam; theoretically, the normal expansion height
doubles when all the foaming water evaporates.
Hence, the whole initial water used for foaming is
not fully utilized for expanding the foam bitumen due
to loss of steam during the foaming process, as
commonly observed during the experiment. Another
reason may refer to the fact that not all the water
(b)
2.5
residual weight of water
2
(%)
1.5
0.5
0
1 wt% 4 wt% 6 wt%
intial water content
(d)
foam bitumen, d weight of water remained in the foam bitumen
decay for different initial water content (1, 4 and 6 wt%); all
figures refer to bitumen C
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
evaporates with small water droplets remaining in the
foam bitumen [3, 20]. This implies that the temper-
ature of foam bitumen is not sufficient to evaporate all
the water used for foaming. As shown in Figs. 6 and 7,
the temperature of the foam bitumen was higher when
using 1 wt% WC compared to the 4 wt% WC. This
indicates more energy is available to evaporate the
water when using lower water content in the foam
bitumen.
Moreover the X-ray CT scan image shown in
Fig. 10 demonstrates the remaining bubbles trapped in
the foam bitumen after decay of 4 h. The initial water
content used for foaming was 6 wt% and the bitumen
temperature was 160 °C. Polydisperse bubbles were
observed in the decayed foam bitumen as shown in
Fig. 10b. The histogram of bubble volume in Fig. 10c
indicates that the majority of the bubbles has a volume
\0.5 mm3. The diameter of the trapped bubbles was
found to be 0.19–2.2 mm. The ratio of trapped bubbles
to the total volume of the foam bitumen decay is
1.5 %. However, the TGA results for foaming the
bitumen at 6 wt% WC indicate that the percentage of
residual water inside the trapped bubbles is higher as
compared to the results from the CT scan. This
indicates that additional micro bubbles could be
trapped in the bitumen which could not be detected
with the X-ray CT scan since the resolution is limited
to 41 lm.
3.5 High frequency torsional rheometer
The viscosity of the foam bitumen in this study is
obtained as follows: First, the temperature of the foam
bitumen is measured by placing a thermocouple close to
(a)
Fig. 10 a Bubbles as seen from the X-ray CT scan, b closer view of trapped bubbles in the foam bitumen decay, c foam bitumen bubble
volume distribution at 6 wt% WC; all figures refer to bitumen C
2451
the bottom of the foam capturing vessel, near to the
sensor location of the HFTR. Then the HFTR is heated
in an oven to the expected foam bitumen temperature at
that location. Warming up the HFTR helps to reduce the
cooling effect in the foam bitumen when measuring the
damping factor. The damping factor is measured by
placing the HFTR inside the foam bitumen close to the
bottom of foam capturing vessel as shown in Fig. 11.
Finally, the viscosity is calculated using the calibration
curve shown in Fig. 12a. In order to observe closely the
foam bitumen bubbles surrounding the HFTR, X-ray
radiography was conducted during the foaming process
in case of a foaming experiment with 4 % WC. The
results are presented in Fig. 11.
The calibration curve for calculating the viscosity
was determined from the average HFTR damping
factors of fluids shown in Table 3. Three tests were
conducted for each fluid. Then, the dynamic viscosi-
ties of the fluids were measured three times using
Physica MCR 301 DSR (Anton Paar GmbH., Austria)
with 25 mm diameter parallel plates and a 1 mm gap.
The average dynamic viscosity results are shown in
Table 3. The calibration curve fits well (R2 = 0.99) to
a power function (Eq. 5) as presented in Fig. 12a. The
coefficients of Eq. 5 are, a = 500, b = 0.1191 and
c = -599.9. Therefore, this equation was used to
calculate the viscosity from the measured foam
bitumen damping factors.
g ¼ a nb þ c: ð5Þ
Three bitumen foaming tests were conducted as
presented in Fig. 12b for estimating the repeatability
of the damping factor measurements with HFTR.
Foaming of bitumen was conducted with bitumen E
50
total bubble volume (mmm )
3
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
single bubble volume (mm 3)
(b) (c)
2452 Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454

Fig. 11 a X- ray radiography images of foam bitumen during HFTR measurement, b a close-up of the HFTR, c schematic of HFTR

Fig. 12 (a) calibration curve for viscosity, relationship between viscosity and damping factor (b) damping factor as a function of time
for bitumen E (c) viscosity of foam bitumen with time

which has a penetration of 168 (0.1 mm) and a was also measured with a thermocouple. The results
softening point of 40.9 °C. While measuring the are shown in Fig. 12b. The viscosity of foam bitumen
damping factor, the temperature of the foam bitumen B and E using the calibration curve according to Eq. 5
Materials and Structures (2016) 49:2439–2454
Table 3 Measured average damping factor, resonance frequency and dynamic viscosity of fluids
Fluids Glycerol
Damping factor 8.18 ± 0.08
Resonance frequency 6123.58 ± 0.01
Dynamic viscosity (mPa s) 81.1
is depicted in Fig. 12c. The foam formed from harder
bitumen B is more viscous compared to the softer
bitumen E. In both cases, the viscosity increases
during the foam bitumen decay over time. For certain
mean bubble size dry foams are harder than wet ones
[27]. This means the gas volume fraction increases
with increasing shear modulus and, therefore, with
increasing viscosity [30, 31]. Hence, for decaying
foam bitumen the number of bubbles decreases with
decreasing gas volume fraction. However, the tem-
perature of the foam bitumen drops quickly as shown
in Fig. 12b resulting in a viscosity increase.
4 Summary and conclusions
1. Characterization of foam bitumen nowadays
mainly consists in a visual estimation of foam
expansion by measuring the expansion height of
the foam in an open container with a ruler. This
kind of bitumen foam characterization was exper-
imentally improved using an ultra-sonic sensor
and applying moving average filtering for accu-
rate monitoring of expansion and decay of the
foam bitumen as a function of time. The ultra-
sonic sensor measurement used for determining
the foam bitumen expansion height is repeatable.
This technique also helps to obtain the half-life of
the foam bitumen in an accurate way.
2. Foaming softer binder results in higher expansion
ratio compared to harder binder. The half-life does
not give a clear indication about the stability of the
foam, for initial water contents in the foam higher
than 1 %.
3. From the high speed camera image, it was
discovered that, at the outlet of the nozzle bitumen
foam has not yet been completely formed. This
can lead to ‘‘delayed foaming’’ which depends on
the origin of binder [3]. The ‘‘foam bitumen’’
stream showed fragmented pieces of irregular size
2453
Polyethylene glycol Water
5.92 ± 0.01 2.65 ± 0.03
6128.27 ± 0.07 6130.74 ± 0.05
60.0 1.00
which resembled rather a liquid state than foam
and water droplets. This indicates that the mixing
and expansion of the bubbles in the expansion
chamber is not as fast as the spraying rate and the
foam is formed afterwards and not as assumed in
the expansion chamber of the foam generator.
4. The temperature distribution on the surface of the
foam bitumen is non uniform, and the minimum to
maximum temperature range is significant when
using high amount of water content (4 wt%).
Hence, the excess water for foaming can act as a
trigger for reducing the foam temperature locally
when in contact with bitumen during the foaming
process. In addition, the surface temperature of the
foam bitumen depends on the bubble size distri-
bution. Thermal imaging revealed larger temper-
ature surface peaks with 4 wt% water content than
with lower water content (1 wt%).
5. If water accumulates in the warm region of the
foam bitumen (i.e. temperature \ 100 °C), then
residual water can accumulate in the foam bitumen.
Similarly, the thermogravimetric results confirmed
that high residual water content (38–48 wt% of the
initial water used for foaming) is found when using
more than 1 wt% water for foaming. Therefore the
amount of water used for foaming has an influence
on the foam bitumen temperature and can influence
the amount of residual water in the foam decay.
This implies that the reason for improved com-
paction of foam asphalt mixture as the water
content increases depends on the residual water, as
the water content increases ([1 %) the compaction
improves. Whereas the mix performance decreases
as the foaming water content increases [32].
6. The HFTR is useful to measure the viscosity of the
foam bitumen starting from spraying until the
foam decays completely. The viscosity of the
foam bitumen increases as the foam bitumen
decay with time since the temperature of the foam
decreases rapidly. This suggests that the mixing
need to start during the spraying of foam bitumen,
2454
before the foam viscosity start to increase during
the foam decay.
Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the support of
Anton Demarmels, Ammann Construction Equipment
(Ammann Schweiz AG, CH-4901 Langenthal, Switzerland).
Jae Bong Lee and Peter Moonen from Building Science and
Technology laboratory EMPA. Group members of the Road
Engineering/Sealing Components lab, EMPA (Federal
Laboratories for Material Science and Technology,
Switzerland). Finally the Commission for Technology and
Innovation CTI, Switzerland and Ammann Schweiz AG,
Switzerland are greatly appreciated for financing the project.
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