Intermolecular Bonding Study of Bituminous Material using Compositional Analysis

Abstract

Bitumen is amorphous, black-coloured visco-elastic material, composed principally of hydrocarbons having high molecular weight characterized by “asphaltenes, resins and oils”. Investigation on the composition of Bitumen having same grade taken from different Refineries i.e., NRL, ARL as Virgin Binder (VB) and RAP (extracted from the pavement). Also the careful examination of the Intermolecular Bonding of the Bitumen Microstructure by a review of studies and correlation with its composition. In research methodology, firstly SARA analysis was performed by Column chromatography on each type of bitumen. Secondly, microstructure intermolecular bonding was investigated theoretically from the literature of methods Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), ESEM etc. and its critical analysis was conducted. From the research results, it has been found out that there are solid and liquid phases having different percentage compositions of the bitumen that are Saturate, Aromatic, Resin, and Asphaltenes (SARA) according to their polarizability and polarity of each type of bitumen. Asphaltene is a solid phase while the other three are in liquid phases that are basically taken from Maltene. Then Compared SARA Results of VB with RAP. Data obtained from compositional analysis of asphalt help us to handle the problems related the stability of bitumen structure. While microstructure intermolecular bonding study theoretically from the literature using techniques like SEM, ESEM etc. helped to understand the internal nature of the bitumen when it is aged, unaged and modified by many modifiers like CNF, SBS, SBR latex fibre etc.