Print Email Facebook Twitter Chemo-Rheological Study of Hardening of Epoxy Modified Bituminous Binders with the Finite Element Method Title Chemo-Rheological Study of Hardening of Epoxy Modified Bituminous Binders with the Finite Element Method Author Apostolidis, P. (TU Delft Pavement Engineering) Liu, X. (TU Delft Pavement Engineering) Kasbergen, C. (TU Delft Pavement Engineering) van de Ven, Martin (TU Delft Pavement Engineering) Pipintakos, G. (TU Delft Pavement Engineering) Scarpas, Athanasios (TU Delft Pavement Engineering; Petroleum Institute) Date 2018-08-17 Abstract The chemical irreversible hardening of epoxy modified bitumen is affected by various physical factors and the successful application of this technology is directly linked with full understanding of chemo-rheological material characteristics. This study proposes a model to describe the material viscosity evolution during hardening of epoxy modified bitumen. The findings from numerical analyses performed to assess the mechanical response of epoxy modified bituminous binders are presented. Information of the chemical interaction of epoxy within a bituminous matrix was collected and all the influential factors have been determined. The proposed chemo-rheological model accounting for the polymerization of the epoxy in the bitumen was formulated and the sensitivity of material parameters, such as activation energy, reaction order and extent of hardening reaction until the gel point of epoxy modified binders, was demonstrated. Results of the analyses suggest that lower levels of activation energy increase the degree of hardening and the rate of viscosity development. By decreasing the hardening reaction until the gel point the achieved viscosity of epoxy modified bitumen was increased showing the importance of gel reaction extent on material viscosity evolution. The numerical studies have shown also that the polymerization rate in the epoxy modified bitumen is highly dependent on the temperature under various (non-) isothermal conditions. Also, the polymerization rate should be considered through all the material curing processes to avoid unwanted variations in the mechanical properties. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ae67ef8c-426f-40c2-bf33-c2dc3599a2fd DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118781377 Embargo date 2019-01-01 ISSN 0361-1981 Source Transportation Research Record, 2672 (28), 190 –199 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2018 P. Apostolidis, X. Liu, C. Kasbergen, Martin van de Ven, G. Pipintakos, Athanasios Scarpas Files PDF TRR2018_Hardening.pdf 1.3 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid%3Aae67ef8c-426f-40c2-bf33-c2dc3599a2fd/datastream/OBJ/view