1.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the softening point of bitumen within the range 30 to 157 C by means of
the Ring-and-Ball apparatus.

2.0

PROCEDURE

1. Select one of the following both liquids and thermometers appropriate for the
expected softening point.
2. Use the ice water to maintain the temperature of bath liquid at 5 . Starting bath
liquid for 15 min.
3. Forceps was using to place a ball from the bottom of the bath in each bal centering
point.
4. Bath liquids were boiled between 30 and 80 C . Use the thermometer to check the
temperature of water. The starting temperature is 5
5. The maximum permissible variation for any 1 min period after the first 3 min should
be 0.5 .
6. Temperature of each ring and ball was recorded by thermometer to indicate the
bitumen surrounding the ball touches the bottom plate.

3.0

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

Timer Reading
(minutes)
0
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Temperature (C)
5
7
11
15
18
22
24
26
28
29
30
30.5
31
31.5
32
33
33.2

4.0

DISCUSSION
a) The source and type of bitumen.

Bitumen is a non-crystalline viscous material, black or dark brown, which is

substantially soluble in carbon disulphide (CS2), possessing adhesive and water-proofing
qualities. It consists essentially of hydrocarbons and would typically comprise at least 80%
carbon and 15% hydrogen, the remainder being oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen and traces of
various metals. Asphalt is a word with different meanings. In American usage asphalt, or, in
full, asphalt cement, is used to mean bitumen (or bitumen binder). In the term 'rock asphalt' it
defines a mineral substance that may be impregnated with bitumen or pitch. Outside America
the word asphalt means a mixture of bitumen and mineral aggregates laid as a road surface.
Bitumen can be obtained from various sources. It occurs naturally, but for most purposes it is
petroleum on which the world relies for its supplies of bitumen. The bitumen content of crude
petroleum oil can vary between 15% and 80%, but the more normal range is 25% to 40%.
The three broad classifications for crude oils are: bitumen based; paraffin based; or bitumen
and paraffin based. Depending on the type of crude petroleum oil, bitumen is present either in
the form of a colloidal dispersion, or in a true solution. During the refining process, as
petroleum oils are taken away by distillation, the proportion of oil to bitumen particles
changes. Instead of these particles being dispersed and relatively few in number, they become
closer to one another and their size increases.
Bitumen is a strong and durable adhesive that binds together a very wide variety of other
materials without affecting their properties. Its durability is essential to major engineering
projects such as roads and waterways where it must perform for up to 20 years or more.

b) Report the bath liquid in the test and quote the mean softening point of your
specimen. Give comment.

For a given bitumen specimen, the softening point determined in a water bath will be
lower than that determined in a glycerin bath. Since the softening point determination is
necessarily arbitrary, this difference matters only for softening points slightly above 80C.
under any circumstances, if the mean of the two temperature determined in glycerin is 80.0C
or lower for bitumen or 77.5C or lower for coal-tar pitch. The softening point is the
temperature at which a substance attains a particular degree of softness under specified
conditions of test. The average softening point test is 33.1C. According to the reference that
we used in this experiment, the type of bitumen used should achieve softening point 45C 52C. However, in our experiment, the softening point achieve only 33C to melt which is to
fast to melt. Other reason why the softening point not achieve as reference is specimen at
brass ring not achieve at least 30 minutes before test during immersion process using ice and
distilled water as in procedure even the temperature not more than 10C. With all this
carelessness, that may affect the result in overall experiment.

c) If the two test temperature differ by more than 1C, offer an explanation.
The difference between the two test is not more than 1C. The temperature is accepted.

5.0

CONCLUSION

Refer to the range of the result of experiment, we can conclude that our penetration
grades is 200-300 which is softening point at 33 as min value. Besides, the parallex
error occur in case of reading of the temperature and it may effected the result of this
experiment. The value of penetration index is -6 and the bitumen type is temperature
susceptible bitumen (tars).