Developing a method for determining the additive ratio in modified bitumen

Date

2025-9-1

Author

Duygu, Ufuk

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Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) is a leading polymer employed to enhance the performance of asphalt binders, thus improving pavement resistance to rutting and cracking. The accurate quantification of SBS content is critical for quality assurance; however, current methodologies frequently exhibit excessive complexity or cost, making them impractical for routine field use. Thus, this research develops and validates a solvent-based fractionation technique for SBS quantification that is rapid and cost-effective. The approach has been established based on the principle that SBS polymer and asphaltenes are insoluble in n-heptane. By measuring the total mass of the n-heptane insoluble fraction and subtracting the base binder's known asphaltene content, the SBS percentage can be obtained. This method was confirmed using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, which quantifies SBS by evaluating its absorption peaks of polybutadiene (~965cm−1) and polystyrene (~699 cm−1) and shows a notable correlation between the proposed solvent-based method and the FTIR results, thereby validating the precision of the novel method for quality control applications. This investigation seeks to validate the assumption that the co-precipitation of asphaltenes and the SBS polymer represents an additive process. The results indicate that this simplified gravimetric method is an effective and practical tool for the pavement industry, offering an effective alternative approach for monitoring the quality and performance of SBS-modified binders.

Subject Keywords

SBS modified asphalt binder, Polymer quantification, Asphalt binder fractionation, FTIR spectroscopy

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/116093

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Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis