Rheological Evaluation of Polymer-Modified Asphalt Binders

Currently, the most used polymer for asphalt binder modification is the thermoplastic elastomer styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) and aromatic oil is commonly added to the mixtures to improve their compatibly. This paper proposes the use of oil shale from sedimentary rock as a compatibilizer agent for polymer-modified asphalt binder (PMB). PMBs were produced by mixing a bitumen with a linear SBS copolymer (3.5% (w.w(-1))) using two oil shale contents (2 and 4%) and petroleum aromatic oil to evaluate comparatively the effect of the compatibilizer agent on the SBS PMB properties. The rheological characteristics of the SBS PMBs were analyzed in a dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) and the morphology accessed by fluorescence optical microscopy. The viscoelastic behavior of the samples corroborated the results for the classical properties and varied according to the sample morphology and composition. The results indicate that the aromatic and shale oils have similar effects on the microstructure, storage stability and viscoelastic behavior of the PMBs. Thus, shale oil could be successfully used as a compatibilizer agent without loss of properties or could even replace the aromatic oil. Following the Superpave methodology it was observed that the linear- and radial-SBS PMBs and linear- SBS PMB with 2% of shale oil can be used up to 70 degrees C, and the linear- SBS PMBs with 4% of shale oil or 2% of aromatic oil can be used only up to 64 degrees C.