Colloquium on Transportation Systems Engineering and Management

CTR, CED, NIT Calicut, India, May 12-13, 2014.

Paper Id: 224
DETERMINATION OF MIXING AND COMPACTION
TEMPERATURE FOR MODIFIED BINDERS

Uma Menon
1
, Reashma P.S.
2
, Shenbagameenal S.,
3
and J. Murali Krishnan
4

1
M.Tech. Student, Transportation Engineering
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, REVA Institute of Technology
& Management, Bengaluru 560064, Karnataka
3
Project Associate

4
Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036,
Tamil Nadu
E-mail: jmk@iitm.ac.in, Contact author


Abstract: Modified binders are used in pavement construction to enhance the performance.
Significant challenges exist related to the use of modified binders, one of which being the
determination of mixing and compaction temperature. Most of the world standards currently
available do not specify a precise mixing and compaction temperature for modified binders
and only the manufacturers technical specifications are used. Typically 15 to 20C in excess
of what is normally used for unmodified binders is used for modified binders. For unmodified
binders, a viscosity criterion is normally used to determine such temperatures. Since the
modified binders exhibit non-Newtonian characteristics even at high temperature, a straight
forward use of viscosity criterion is not possible. In this investigation, two types of modified
binders (CRMB60, PMB40) were used. To map the non-Newtonian and Newtonian regimes
during mixing and compaction, a rotational viscometer was used. Steady shear and shear rate
sweep experiments were carried out under different thermal histories. Using these test
protocols, the mixing and compaction temperatures were determined based on the
Newtoniannon-Newtonian transition. It was found that these temperatures were much lower
than the current practice. A typical bituminous grade mixture as specified in MORTH
guidelines with all the modified binders were cast using a shear compactor at the mixing and
compaction temperature established by the above protocols. It was seen that the volumetric
properties of the control sample (manufactured as per the prevalent practice) and the samples
using the mixing and compaction temperature determined in this study did not show much
deviation.

Keywords
Mixing and compaction temperature, nonNewtonian, Newtonian, Shear compactor

1. INTRODUCTION

The rate of highway construction in India has accelerated in recent years. Around 90%
of roads in India use bitumen for pavement construction(Nagabhushana, 2009). The
performance of the pavement depends on the quality of the materials used for the
construction. In order to meet the increasing traffic loads and the corresponding increase in
pavement stresses, binders used in the bituminous mixtures for road paving are modified. The
binders which are modified by suitable additives are expected to improve the mechanical
properties of the mixtures. The pavement constructed with modified binders shows higher
resistance to rutting, thermal cracking and decreased fatigue damage (Kandhal et al., 2011).
During the manufacture of bituminous mixtures, the binders are heated to high
temperature to ensure that the aggregates are well coated by the binder during mixing.
Immediately after mixing, the mix is transported to the construction site and compacted. The
loss of temperature during transport is minimized by appropriately insulating the truck so that
the mix during compaction will be workable and reach the desired level of compaction. The
various standards and specifications for hot mix asphalt construction (Asphalt Institute, 2003)
clearly stipulate the temperature during mixing and compaction for mixes prepared with
unmodified bitumen. The Asphalt Institute mix design manual defines the mixing and
compaction temperature for unmodified binder in terms of the viscosity of binder.The
temperature to which the bitumen is heated to produce a viscosity of 0.170.02 Pa.s and
0.280.03 Pa.s shall be the mixing and compaction temperatures respectively (Asphalt
Institute, 2003).
Asphalt Institute (2003) also suggests that one should use the manufacturers
guidelines for determining the mixing and compaction temperature for modified binders. It is
well understood that if one uses the viscosities as mentioned here for modified binders, the
temperatures are going to be unusually high. IRC:SP:53(2010) suggests 165 to 185
o
C as the
range to be used for mixing and 130 to 160
o
C as the range for compaction temperature.
Most of the manufacturers suggest mixing and compaction temperature for modified
binders to be 20 C higher than that for unmodified binders. If one goes by the manufacturers
recommendation, the mixing temperature for modified binder mixture will be 185 C and the
compaction temperature will be at 170 C. Such high mixing and compaction temperature can
lead to phase separation of some of the modified binders. Also, while it is possible to make
samples at such higher temperature in the laboratory, it is plainly not possible to subject the
material to such high temperature uniformly throughout in the field. One of the biggest
concern currently expressed by the highway engineers is the need to identify a method for
determining the mixing and compaction temperature.
Yildrim et al., 2000, used the same viscosity range that is used for the unmodified
binder. The viscosity-temperature chart and the temperature corresponding to the viscosity of
0.170.02 and 0.280.03 Pa.s was taken as the mixing and compaction temperature
respectively. Bahia et al., 2001, used zero shear viscosity to determine the mixing and
compaction temperature. The mixing and compaction temperature obtained using zero shear
viscosity was found to be less than that obtained from conventional viscosity chart. A test
methodology referred to as the phase angle method, which was based on Newtonian response
of the material was suggested by West et al., (2010) for determining the mixing temperature.
A frequency sweep test is conducted using a Dynamic Shear Rheometer at 50, 60, 70 and 80
o
C, and a master curve is constructed. Using empirical expressions, the mixing temperature
is determined for frequency corresponding to the phase angle of 86 .
Determination of compaction temperature is even more challenging when compared to
mixing temperatures. At these temperatures, the material exhibits transition from Newtonian
to a non-Newtonian fluid and hence the viscosity determination at any specific temperature
will be non-unique. The decrease in viscosity due to the shear thinning behaviour of the
modified binder due to shearing and the increase in viscosity due to temperature drop rather
complicates the issue. Currently, the compaction density is the only quality control parameter
used to check the compaction of pavement. However, it is possible that for a given density (or
air voids), the possibility of a widely varying mechanical properties can exist and unless one
understands the issues related to compaction mechanics, it is not possible to arrive at an
unique compaction temperature range for a given binder and mix (Saradhi et al., 2008).
Added to the above issues is the aging that happens to the mix during mixing and
compaction. During the transport of mix from hot mix plant and during compaction
considerable aging occurs to the binder and this also influences the manner in which
compaction could be carried out. To simulate the short term aging of the mix, the current
AASHTO protocol prescribes that the mix be kept in an oven for a specific temperature for 4
hours before compaction (AASHTO PP2, 1994). Prior to compaction, the sample is then
transferred to another oven which is kept at the compaction temperature for 30 minutes and
immediately thereafter the sample is compacted. While there is considerable discussion and
debate in the technical literature (Bahia et al., 2001; West et al., 2010) about compaction
temperature for mixes with modified binders, it is not clear whether the short-term aging
protocol for mixes with unmodified binders could be identically adopted for mixes with
modified binder.
As mentioned earlier, the modified binder shows transition from Newtonian to non
Newtonian at mixing and compaction temperature. This transitory behaviour of modified
binder was characterized using the apparent viscosity from protocols established at IIT
Madras (Padmarekha et al., 2011). The current study focuses on the concept identifying the
Newtonian temperature for mixing. As mentioned earlier the compaction occurs in non
Newtonian regime of the modified binder. The temperature at which the effect of shear rate
increment and temperature decrement on the viscosity of binder compensates each other can
be identified as the compaction temperature.
In this investigation, the Newtonian non-Newtonian transition temperature of the
modified binders were mapped during mixing and compaction. Using this data, the mixing
and compaction temperature for fabricating modified binder mixtures were arrived at. A
control sample following Industry practice was bench marked with mixes made with the
temperature proposed here and the variation of volumetric properties were determined.


2. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

As part of current study, a polymer modified binder (PMB40), a crumb rubber
modified binder (CRMB60) was used for binder characterisation.The CRMB and Plastomer
samples were prepared for the mixture tests. The median grading of bituminous concrete
grade-2 as per MoRTH (2001) were used.

2.1 Binder Investigation

Three different experimental protocols were developed by Padmarekha and Krishnan
(2011) to determine the on-set of Newtonian regime for unmodified binders and fourth
protocol was developed as part of current study is to quantify the shear thinning
characteristics of the modified binder. The readers can refer to Padmarekha and Krishnan
(2011) for details related to the first three protocols. In order to characterize the rheological
response of the binder, the data collected from the tests conducted as per the three protocols
were analysed to determine the mixing temperature. The experiments were carried out on
unaged binder.
The results of experiments performed on PMB40 as per protocol 1 shown in Fig 1.(a).
The apparent viscosity is expressed as a function of temperature. The binder was subjected to
three different shear rate increments of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03 rpm/s. The temperature was
increased at rate of 2
o
C/min starting from 90
o
C . At this temperature, the binder is expected
to be non Newtonian. The transition temperature is identified as temperature at which shear
rate independent viscosity is obtained and from the graph in Fig 1 (a) it is seen that it occurs at
137
o
C. Fig 1(b) shows the data of experiments performed on PMB40 as per protocol 2. The
apparent viscosity is expressed as a function of shear rate. The experiments were conducted at
two different temperatures.The binder showed Newtonian response at 145
o
C. The data of
experiments conducted on PMB40 as per protocol 3 is shown in Fig 1(c) The binder was
subjected to a steady shear at constant temperature. The plot in Fig 1 (c) shows the apparent
viscosity of the binder expressed as a function of time at 150
o
C. As mentioned earlier, the
temperature at which the binder shows shear rate independent viscosity is taken as transition
temperature. The temperature corresponding to the on-set of Newtonian response of the binder
is considered as the mixing temperature .The transition temperature obtained from analysis of
protocol I, II and III is shown in Table 1.
Fig 1. (a) Apparent Viscosity as a
function of temperature of PMB40 -
Protocol 1

Fig 1. (b) Apparent Viscosity as a
function of shear rate of PMB40 - Protocol
II


Fig 1. (c) Apparent Viscosity as a function of time of PMB40 protocol III


Table 1. Transition Temperature obtained from analysis of protocol I, protocol II and
protocol III

Binder Protocol I Protocol II Protocol III
PMB40 137 150 160
CRMB60 183 185 (>200)

The fourth protocol results were studied to determine the compaction temperature. Fig
2 depicts protocol IV wherein the binder was subjected to a shear rate ramp and temperature
was allowed to drop according to the ambient conditions. The experiments were run at steady
shear, low shear rate increment of 0.0067 rpm/s and high shear rate increment of 0.1 rpm/s.
The consistency in temperature drop was ensured. Brookfield HA DV-II rotational viscometer
with the thermosel apparatus was used for binder characterization. The SC4- 21 spindle of
16.77 mm diameter and 35.15 mm effective length was used. The sample preparation was
carried out as per ASTM D4402, 2013. The viscosity as a function of shear rate at different
temperatures was recorded.


Fig 2. Angular velocity of spindle and Temperature as a function of Time Protocol IV

As mentioned earlier,the temperature regime at which the effect of shear rate
increment and temperature decrement on the viscosity of binder compensates each other can
be identified using protocol IV. The range of temperature over which the viscosity will not
change drastically can be obtained and thus reduce the compaction temperature
appropriately.The data obtained from the experiments on CRMB60 exhibited non
Newtonian behaviour to a large extent at 170
o
C. The shift in apparent viscosity values as seen
between steady shear plot and high shear rate increment plot is due to shear thinning
behaviour of the binder. The combined effect of shear rate increment and temperature drop on
the binder will cause minimum change in apparent viscosity over a temperature regime, from
170
o
C to 150
o
C as seen in Fig 3(a). The apparent viscosity of PMB40 as a function of
temperature is shown in Fig 3 (b) The shift in viscosity between steady shear and high shear
rate increment is less.

Fig 3.(a) Apparent Viscosity as function of
temperature (CRMB60)

Fig 3.(b) Temperature as a function of
time (PMB40)
Fig 3(a) and Fig 3.(b) shows the variation of apparent viscosity as the temperature is
dropped and the material was subjected to different shear rate sweeps. It is very clear that
CRMB60 shear thinned considerably at high shear rate (0.1 rpm/s) and hence the gain of
viscosity due to temperature drop was not as substantial when compared to steady shear
experiment or the low shear rate experiment (0.0067 rpm/s). This clearly gives one enough
information to make a choice of compaction temperature as the temperature drops drastically.
Based on different trials of experiments carried out on PMB40 (not reported here for want of
space), it was very clear that the plastomer and unmodified binder exhibited identical non-
Newtonian characteristics during compaction temperature regime. Hence, the compaction
temperature of plastomer was kept identical to that of an unmodified binder. The compaction
temperature of unmodified binder is 150
o
C. On the other hand, from the analysis of the high
shear rate viscosity data for CRMB60, it is clearly seen that one can reduce the compaction
temperature to an extent in which the viscosity values remained more or less constant. Taking
into account the issues related to measurement accuracy of the Brookfield viscometer, it was
found that the compaction temperature could be reduced to 160
o
C since viscosity variations
are minimal when compared to the starting temperature of 170
o
C.


2.2 Mixture investigation

The bituminous mix of BC grade 2 was fabricated using plastomer PMB40 and
CRMB60. Two sets of bituminous mix samples were fabricated with different mixing and
compaction temperature mentioned against mix protocol I and mix protocol II in Table 2. All
the bituminous concrete mixes were prepared for a 4% target air voids with 5% bitumen
content. After mixing, the mix was kept in the 135
o
C oven for 4 hours to simulate aging that
occurs due to transport of the mix from plant to site. The aging temperature for modified
binder mixture is not explicitly specified in any standards. The mix temperature after short
term aging is increased to compaction temperature before compaction. The target density of
the compacted block was reached at the programmed terminal air voids. The rectangular
blocks of 450 150 165 mm height were produced using shear box compactor..


Table 2. Mixing and Compaction Temperature as per Mix Protocol 1 and Mix Protocol 2

Protocol Binder Type Mixing
Temperature
(
o
C)
Aging
Temperature
(
o
C)
Compaction
Temperature
(
o
C)
Mix
Protocol 1
CRMB 185 (binder)
170 (aggregates)
155 170
Plastomer 185 (binder)
170 (aggregates)
155 170
Mix
Protocol 2
CRMB 185 (binder)
170 (aggregates)
155 160
Plastomer 135 (binder)
150 (aggregates)
135 150

The cylinders of 100 150mm are cored out of the beam sample to determine the
volumetric and mechanical properties. The compaction termination criterion was achieving
the target air voids of 4%. The data collected by means of the UTS software in terms of
variation of air voids with the number cycles is as shown in Fig 4 (a) and Fig 4 (b). The
number of compaction cycles for mix protocol 1 and 2 was similar for CRMB60. The results
of PMB40 also showed less variation in the results of the two mix protocols.
Fig 4. (a) Air voids attained as a function
of number of compaction cycles for
CRMB60
Fig 4.(b) Air voids attained as a function of
number of compaction cycles for PMB40

The cylindrical samples cored were sliced to three discs in order to determine the air
void distribution. Table 5 shows the air voids, bulk specific gravity (G
mb
), maximum specific
gravity (G
mm
) of cored and sliced PMB60 samples as per mix protocol 2. The samples which
were fabricated as per mix protocol 1 as part of investigation carried out at IIT Madras,
showed similar air void content as obtained from mix protocol 2.





Table 4. Air voids of samples cored from the beam (Mix protocol 2)

Sample No. G
mb
G
mm
Air voids (%)
PMB 1 2.493
2.602
4.180
PMB 2 2.497 4.001
PMB 3 2.512 3.438

Table 5. Air voids of samples sliced from the cylinder (Mix protocol 2)

Sample No. G
mb
G
mm
Air voids (%)
PMB 1 2.515 3.350
PMB 2 2.501 2.602 3.740
PMB 3 2.494 4.100

3. SUMMARY

In this investigation the non Newtonian to Newtonian transition temperature of PMB40 and
CRMB60 was determined. The temperature at which the binder exhibits Newtonian behaviour
was considered as the mixing temperature. The range of temperature over which the viscosity
did not change drastically was obtained from the results of the experiment conducted as per
protocol IV. The reduced compaction temperature of 150
o
C for PMB40 and 160
o
C for
CRMB60 was identified from the results of the experiment run as per protocol IV. The
modified binder mixture samples were fabricated on two sets as per mix protocol I and II.
Though different sets of temperatures were used, similar volumetric properties were obtained
for both the binders using the new protocol when compared to the current industry practice.


Acknowledgements

The authors thank Department of Science and Technology for funding this
investigation. The grant number is DST/TSG/STS/2011/46.

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