Benefits of bitumen emulsion in comparison with bitumen solute and its test methods

Bitumen in road paving is used as a protective coat and also in building construction as an adhesive. For a better and easier mixing of bitumen and gravels, bitumen should be flowing and since bitumen is thermoplastic, primary way is heating. But hot mixtures should be stored, carried and used hot; in other ways, would lose its usages. In many cases to fluidize the bitumen instead of heating, it could be solved in organic solvents like gasoline, kerosene and gas oil or dispense in water as an emulsion. Bitumen emulsion is a new invention to be replaced with cut-backs. In this method, bitumen would be changed in to colloid form. To do this, an emulsifier should be used. Bitumen emulsions are classified in two groups: 1- Cationic, 2- Anionic. Process of producing bitumen emulsion either is In Line or Batch wise. The result could be mixed with cold and wet construction materials. In many cases, using emulsion is much safer than cut-backs. It would highly decrease the risk of fire accident and evaporation of gases during the road paving. As it would be discussed later, quality control for bitumen emulsion is in order to ASTM D244.

Keywords:

Bitumen emulsion , Cut-back , Cationic , Anionic