Enhancing Bitumen Properties By The Use Of Crumb Rubber And Vestenamer

In most road construction projects binders are modified with elastomers to enhance the performance for many years. For this, polymers like Stylrol-Butadien-Styrol (SBS) are mostly used. Decreasing availability and increasing prices of theses additions make it necessary to develop and test profitable alternatives which have the same or even better effect but are less expensive. Experiments with rubber-modified bitumen in several countries showed a diversity of properities. There were different results concerning the technical properties and the attendant circumstances (vapors and particulate material). By adding Vestenamer – a trans-polyoctenamer (TOR) - to the crump rubber modification process you can remove negative effects and additionally enhance the technical properties, e.g. higher shear modulus (DSR), a better deformation energy and optimized emission-action in comparison to similar modifications. Within the scope of large analysis in the recent years, several surveys were made to get established in practice. Last year 100.000 m² roads were built using this crumb rubber modification with Vestenamer in Germany. In doing so, many questions with practical relevance could be solved and scientifically proven with the help of a research project which was supported by the german ministry of economics.