Direct use of RAPM in laboratory study on diffusion between asphalt binders

Abstract

The present work reports  a laboratory study on the asphalt binder diffusion with reference to the hot asphalt recycling. Generally, in diffusion-related studies on asphalt binder either artificially aged or, a chemically extracted binder from reclaimed asphalt pavement material (RAPM) is used. In the present study, an experimental set-up is proposed to directly use RAPM in the diffusion process. The application potentials of the FTIR-ATR and the AFM, for studying the asphalt binder diffusion process and estimation of the coefficient of diffusion, are also investigated. Based on the limited data observed and idealisations considered, the diffusion coefficient for the binder-pair used in the study is obtained in the order of 10⁻⁹ m²/s, and its value is observed to increase with the increase of temperature.

KEYWORDS:

• Diffusion
• coefficient of diffusion
• Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement Material (RAPM)
• virgin binder
• AFM
• FTIR-ATR

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the help rendered by the staff members of various laboratories of IIT Kanpur , namely Deepali D. Ubale of Centre for Nanosciences (for AFM), Rishabh Anand Omar of Centre of Environmental Science and Engineering (for FTIR-ATR), and Shraddha Singh of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (for SEM facilities).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).