EMPIRICAL AND RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES EVALUATION OF MODIFIED ASPHALT BINDER CONTAINING NANOPOLYACRYLATE POLYMER MODIFIER

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of nanopolyacrylate (NP) in binder modification on the empirical and rheological characteristics of the conventional binder were explored. The empirical and rheological binder properties were characterized using penetration, softening point, viscosity and dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) respectively.  These testings have become useful methods in characterizing of the binder performance on the pavement. The results indicated that NP polymer modification improved the physical properties of the conventional binder such as; penetration, softening point and temperature susceptibility. The results of viscosity test show that the NP polymer modified binder is more viscous than unmodified binder where viscosity increases with the increment of polymer content. The DSR results indicate that the NP polymer improves rheological properties of conventional binder, i.e. increasing the complex shear modulus (G∗) values and rutting parameters (G∗/sin δ), as well as decreasing the phase angle (δ) values. Therefore, it can be concluded that NP polymers considerably improves elastic properties and rutting resistance of binder and thus could be used for enhancing the asphalt pavement performance.