Asphalt

Asphalt is one of the oldest materials

used in construction.
Asphalt binders were used in 3000
B.C., preceding the use of the wheel
by 1000years.
Asphalt came from various locations
around the world.

Trinidad lake asphalt

 Today, practically all asphalt cement

is from refined petroleum.

Types of asphalt products

Asphalt used in pavements is produced in 3 forms:
Asphalt cement
Asphalt cutback
Asphalt emulsion

At room temperatures, asphalt cement is a semisolid

material that cannot be applied readily as a binder
without being heated.
Liquid asphalt products, cutbacks and emulsions, have
been developed and can be used without heating.
Although liquid asphalt products are convenient, they
cannot produce a quality of asphalt concrete
comparable to what can be produced by heating neat
asphalt.

Asphalt cement

Asphalt cutback
A cutback is produced by dissolving asphalt
cement in a lighter molecular weight
hydrocarbon solvent.
When the cutback is sprayed on a pavement
or mixed with aggregates, the solvent
evaporates, leaving the asphalt residue as
binder.
Disadvantages:
Petroleum cost have escalated and the use of
solvent is not anymore cost effective.
Cutbacks are hazardous materials due to
volatility of solvents.
Application of cutbacks releases environmentally
unacceptable hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

Asphalt emulsion
An alternative to dissolving the asphalt in a
solvent is dispersing the asphalt in water as
emulsion as.
In this process the asphalt cement is physically
broken down into micron-sized globules that
are mixed into water containing an emulsifying
agent.
Emulsified asphalt typically consist of about
60% to 70% asphalt cement, 30% to 40% water
and a fraction of a percent of emulsifying
agent.

Uses of asphalt
The main use of asphalt is in
pavement construction and
maintenance. In addition, asphalt is
used in sealing and waterproofing
various structural components, such
as roofs and underground
foundations.
The selection of the type and grade
of asphalt depends on the type of
construction and climate of the area.

Asphalt cement
Also called asphalt binders, are used
typically to make hot-mix asphalt
concrete for the surface layer of
asphalt pavements.
It is also used in patching and
repairing both asphalt and portland
cement concrete pavements.

Liquid asphalts (emulsion and

cutbacks)
Are used for pavement maintenance
applications, such as

Fog seals
Afog sealis a light application of a
diluted slow-setting asphalt emulsion
to the surface of an aged pavement
surface.Fog sealsare low-cost and
are used to restore flexibility to an
existing HMA pavement

Chip seals
Chipseal(also chip seal) is a
pavement surface treatment that
combines one or more layer(s) of
asphalt with one or more layer(s) of
fine aggregate.

slurry seals
Aslurry sealis the application of a
mixture of water, asphalt emulsion,
aggregate (very small crushed rock),
and additives to an existing asphalt
pavement surface. Aslurry sealis
similar to a fogsealexcept
theslurry sealhas aggregates as
part of the mixture.

Microsurfacing
A cold-mix expansion of slurry seal
with a higher polymer and asphalt
residual content, better quality
aggregate and fast-setting
chemicals.

Term

Paving applications of asphalt

Description

Application

Hot mix
asphalt

Carefully designed mixture of

asphalt cement and aggregates

Pavement surface,
patching

Cold mix

Mixture of aggregates and liquid

asphalt

Patching, low volume road

surface, asphalt stabilized
base

Fog seal

Spray of diluted asphalt emulsion

on existing pavement surface

Seal existing pavement

surface

Prime coat

Spray coat asphalt emulsion to

bond aggregate base and asphalt
concrete surface

Construction of flexible
pavement

Tack coat

Spray coat asphalt emulsion

between lift of asphalt concrete

Construction of new
pavements or between an
existing pavement and an
overlay

Chip seal

Spray coat asphalt emulsion (or

asphalt cement or cutback)
followed with aggregate layer

Maintenance of existing
pavement or low volume
road surfaces

Slurry seal

Mixture of emulsion, well-graded

fine aggregate and water

Resurface low volume

roads

Microsurfaci Mixture of polymer modified

ng
emulsion, well-graded crushed

texturing., sealing, crack

filling, rut filling, and minor

Performance grade binder

characterization
Several test are used in the
performance grade method to
characterize the asphalt binder.

Pressure aging vessel

It is designed to simulate the
oxidative aging that occurs in asphalt
binders during pavement service.

Flash point

At high temperature, asphalt can flash or

ignite in the presence of open flame or
spark. The flash point test is a safety test
that measures the temperature at which
flashes.

Rotational Viscometer test

This test is to determine the viscosity
of bitumen.

Bending beam rheometer

test
The bending beam rheometer measures the
midpoint deflection of a simply supported
prismatic asphalt binder subjected to a
constant load applied to its midpoint
The Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) test
provides a measure of low temperature
stiffness and relaxation properties of
asphalt binders. These parameters give an
indication of an asphalt binders ability to
resist low temperature cracking.