A method was developed to make a quantitative analysis of the microstructure of asphalt modified with styrene-butadiene-styrene block（SBS） copolymer. Moreover, both mixed and branched SBS were employed in the preparation of modified asphalt. By sampling specimens from the top, middle, and bottom, a number of microscope slides were made and 400 times micro images were gained. Binarized with the software of MATLAB, the images then went to the process of distribution test, when four typical distributions were employed to investigate the distribution of modifi er spread in asphalt. The distribution characteristic and its parameter were both found. The results show that asphalt phase clearly obeys Poisson distribution, and its parameter, λ, is bond up with the condition SBS performs in. Based on this parameter, indexes can be set up to evaluate the structure of the mixture and its performance as well. Compared with that modifi ed with mixed SBS, the asphalt modifi ed with branched SBS has better performance but worse stability, for it is easier to segregate.
This study aims to introduce an appropriate analytical method for asphalt pavement based upon unified strength theory （UST）. The traditional maximum shear stress strength theory （MSST） cannot describe the marked difference between tension strength and compressive strength or variable intermediate principal stress, which significantly affects the geotechnical materials. Our studies try to find a new asphalt pavement failure criterion that considers the influence of both tension-compression strength ratio and intermediate principal stress of asphalt mixture. In order to select a suitable theory on pavement material, the UST is introduced and compared with the traditional theory. Results show that the tension-compression strength ratio of asphalt mixture, which is used as a material parameter, dramatically affects the stress and stress distribution law in pavement; the pavement stress level increases dramatically after considering the intermediate principal stresses. Therefore, the UST which considers both tension-compression strength ratio and intermediate principal stress is more in line with the material characteristics of asvhalt pavement.
The styrene-butadiene-styrene（SBS） modified bitumens with different contents of SBS modifiers are stored in different conditions to study the storage stability of SBS modified bitumen.Mixed-level orthogonal array design（OAD） is used and factors such as SBS modifier content,storage time,storage temperature and container size are chosen in a mixed-level OAD with an OA16（31×44） matrix.Parameters like the separation softening point difference（the separation difference of the ring and ball softening point of the top and bottom samples） and the average softening point（the arithmetic mean of the softening points of the top and bottom samples） are proposed to evaluate the separation and the ageing of modified bitumen during storage in this experiment,respectively.The results reveal that the separation and the ageing during storage exhibit a complicated variation for storage temperature and time.The separation softening point difference decreases with the storage temperature rising from 20 to 120 ℃ and increases with the temperature exceeding 120 ℃,and the average softening point drops with the storage time being prolonged.Different storage conditions have various effects on the storage stability of SBS modified bitumen.
The changes of resistivity of conductive asphalt concrete at different temperatures were studied,and positive temperature coefficient（PTC）modelwas established to estimate the influence of temperature on the resistivity quantitatively,which eliminated the interference with conductivity evaluation brought by temperature variation.Finally,the analysis of temperature cycling test results proves that the changes of percolation network structure caused by temperature variation prompt the emergence of PTC of conductive asphalt concrete.
The objective of this work is to develop a novel methodology for determining real resistivity of conductive asphalt concrete based on two-electrode method.Due to an influence of contact resistance,the measured resistivity is always not equal to the real resistivity.To determine the real resistivity,a linear relationship of the measured resistivity,contact resistance and the real resistivity was established.Then experiments for six specimens with varying graphite contents were designed and performed to validate the formulation.Results of experiments demonstrate that the slope of the line represents contact resistance,and the intercept indicates the real resistivity.The effects of graphite content on contact resistance and real resistivity are also revealed.Finally,results show that the influence of contact resistance on accuracy of resisitvity measurement becomes more serious if graphite content is beyond 3%.Hence,it is the time to choose this novel methodology to determine the real resistivity of asphalt concrete by taking account of contact resistance.
