Effects of aromatic oils on the structural and physicochemical properties of rubberised asphalt based on molecular simulations

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effects of aromatic oil types (common aromatic oil, rubber aromatic oil, and rosin oil) on the structural and physicochemical properties of rubberized asphalt (RA) using molecular simulations and experiment. The First-principle method was used to evaluate the structure change of aromatic oil-based rubberized asphalt (ARA). The molecular dynamic simulation method was performed to predict the physicochemical properties of ARA. Meanwhile, the fundamental physicochemical properties and morphology of ARA were employed to verify the simulation results. The results show that aromatic oil can promote the dispersion of asphaltenes, resins, and rubber molecules, especially rubber aromatic oil. Moreover, aromatic oils can change the structure of RA and improve the low-temperature properties. The addition of aromatic oil will change significantly the population of C = O and S = O in ARA and promote the structure changes of ARA. Aromatic oil enhances the chemical activity of waste rubber. The ranking of glass transition temperature for three different aromatic oils is common aromatic oil > rosin oil > rubber aromatic oil. The simulated result is the same as the experimental results, which indicates that the average molecular structures of aromatic oils and ARA are reasonable.

KEYWORDS:

• Rubberised asphalt; aromatic oil; molecular simulation; structure change; physicochemical properties

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 52172392, 52378456, and 52008235), National Major Research Instruments of China (grant number 51827812), and Key Research and Development Project of Hubei Province (2021BAA180).