摘要: |
The present study is focussed to examine the suitability of Binder Bond Strength (BBS) test to evaluate bonding failure at aggregate-bitumen interface under different moisture conditioning regimes. Bonding failure in bituminous pavement due to moisture is one of the prime reasons for failure of a pavement system. The BBS test can measure bond strength between bitumen and aggregate before and after moisture conditioning. In this research work, bond strength of VG30 binder and basalt aggregate was evaluated under different moisture conditioning regimes, namely, (a) standard conditioning at 40℃ for 24 h, (b) varying temperature conditioning at 25℃, 40℃ and 60℃ for 24 h, and (c) prolonged conditioning for 96 h at 40℃ and 60℃. In addition, comparison of bond strength of VG30 and VG10 with basalt aggregate was studied. The study revealed that lower viscosity grade binder (i.e., VG10) will have reduced bond strength with aggregate. It was observed that aggregate-bitumen bond strength decreases after moisture conditioning. In addition, prolonged conditioning for 96 h significantly reduced the bond strength of VG30-basalt system compared with standard conditioning for 24 h. Furthermore, decrease in bond strength with increase in conditioning temperature was observed, irrespective of conditioning duration. Moreover, failure pattern was observed to be cohesive before and after moisture conditioning in all the cases. Thus, it was concluded that, BBS test is suitable to quantify bond strength and identify failure mechanism under varying conditioning regimes (i.e. conditioning temperature and duration). The BBS test may be helpful to estimate bonding potential of aggregate and bitumen rather than stripping value test which is frequently used as a qualitative approach in India. |