HIGHWAY & TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LABORAT0RY JOURNAL

RING AND BALL TEST (SOFTENING POINT TEST)

Muhammad Farhan Bin Ibrahim, Muhammad Efendi Bin Asmat, Mohamad Adlan Bin Zamri,
Muhammad Afif Rusydi Bin Md Khalil, Nur Izzati Emalia Bt Azhar, Erin Marissa Bt Ramlan ,
Maizatul Aqmar Bt Yusup, Zaila Maizuroh Bt Abd Muin

Abstract

The morphology of this test is that softening point is the temperature at which the
substance achieve a specific degree of softening under specified condition of the
test.The Softening Point of bitumen is the temperature at which the substance achieve
specific of softening. When heated under water at specified condition and specific
temperature in C at which a standard ball passes through a sample of mould and falls
through a height of 2.5 cm. The purpose of softening point helps to know the
temperature up to which a bituminous binder should be heated for different road use
application.The ring and ball apparatus determine the softening point .

Keywords:softening point,temperature,bitumen,degree of softening,ring and balls

INTRODUCTION

The ring and ball test is for determining

the softening point of bitumen.
Softening point can be defined as the
temperature at which a substance
achieve a specific degree of softness
under specified condition test. The
softening point is useful in the
classification of bitumen.
The ring and ball softening point test
involve heating two small samples of the
bitumen in a container of water.The ring
is immersed to a depth such that its
bottom is exactly 25mm(1in) above the
bottom of the bath. The temperature of
the bath is then gradually
increased,causing the bitumen to soften
and permitting the ball to sink
eventually to the bottom of the bath. A
metal ball is placed on top of each ring
sample.
The temperature at which each ball
touches a bar near the bottom is called
the softening point. A high softening
point is preferable to a low one. In
addition, if the two balls drop at
temperatures more than 2 degrees apart,
the test is invalidated and must be
repeated.The ring and ball test is
important for testing the bitumen
material for road/highway project.Being
very simple in concept and equipment
the ring and bell has remained a valuable
consistency test for control in refining
operations particularly in the production
of air blown bitumen. It is also an
indirect measure of viscosity is evident.
The softening point value has particular
significance for materials which are to
be used as thick films such as joint and
crack filters and roofing material. A high
softening point ensures that they will not
flow in services. For bitumen of a given
penetration determined at 25C the
higher the softening point the lower the
temperature sensitivity.
 HIGHWAY & TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LABORAT0RY JOURNAL

OBJECTIVE

To determine the Softening Point of

Bitumen by ring and ball method.
The temperature which the bitumen
achieve consistent under the specified
condition of the test is called softening
point of bitumen.At give the temperature PROCEDURE
at which the bitumen plastic state to
liquid state.
1. The sample has to be heated at a
temperature between 75C and
Apparatus 100C, until its stir to a completely
fluid and free from air bubbles.
1. Standard ring-and-ball test 2. Poured the asphalt into the ring and
apparatus cooled at room temperature for
approximately 30 minutes,to level
the temperatures.
2. Thermometer
3. To place the ring on the ring holder.
3. Bath Maintain the temperature in the
water bath to 5 1C for 40 minutes
and keep the sample in the water
4. Bath liquid (water) bath and a level of not less than 102
mm and not more than 108mm from
the bottom of the bath
5. Stirrer
4. Forceps are used to place the ball in
6. Heater each ball-centering plate guide.
Heat is applied at a rate 5C per
minute to ensure the uniformly its
7. Stopwatch increase

5. Each ring and ball temperature

shown by the thermometer is
recorded when the specimen
surrounding the ball touches the
bottom plate

6. The mean of the temperatures

recorded is determined as the
softening point.

RESULT

The result which obtained from the test

is as follow:For bitumen grade 80/100

Instant Softening
Ring No. Temperature, Point,
C Average C
Figure 1:Ring and Ball softening point A 60
apparatus
B 52 56

2
Example calculation =60C + 52C
2
Average = ball 1 + ball 2 =56 C
 HIGHWAY & TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LABORAT0RY JOURNAL
DISCUSSION
From the observation/result, which was
done, we found that the value for the
ring and ball test is 56C .In this
experiment the bitumen samples are
ready at the temperature of 30C to
100C, and the bitumen is ready pour at
a pair of the brass ring. After this, the
ring is suspended in breaker filled with
distilled water at 5C and this
temperature is maintained for 5 minutes.
This is important to obtain an accurate
penetration result. The steel ball were
place not carefully at the center of the
brass ring, precaution does not taken
such as the steel ball are not been
screwed tightly at the center of the ring.
After that,the water will heated and
stirred at a controlled rate of 5C per
minute and the temperature will record
at every minute.
The temperature of the bath will
gradually increase , causing the bitumen
to soften and permitting the ball to sink
eventually to the bottom of the beaker,
the temperature which the softened
bitumen sinks will be recorded. But
there is some mistake with placing the
bitumen on the brass ring .Hence, the
difference temperature for both bitumen
is exceed 1C. The result of the ring and
ball test will compare with the result of
the penetration test to get the properties
of Asphalt according to PI value .
To get more accurate and valid result
ensures that the water bath temperature
is maintained at 5 1C.
Temperature is the main factors that
control the sample result. To get an
accurate result the water temperature is
increased using a heater. If the sample
heated with a high temperature, the
bitumen will melts and the balls can pass
through. Compare to ball 1 and ball 2,
we can see that the ball pass the bitmen
at the difference time and temperature of
56C.This may result from mistake from
human error .
RECOMMENDATION
Softening point indicates the
temperatures at which binders posses the
same viscosity. Bituminious materials do
not have a melting point. Rather, the
change of state from solid to liquid is
gradual over a wide range of
temperature. Softening point has
particular signifacance for materials to
be used as joint and crack fillers. Higher
softening point ensures that they will not
flow during service. The higher the
softening point , the lesser the
temperature susceptibility. Bitumen with
higher softening point is preferred in
warmer places .
CONCLUSION
From the experiment above , after
performing the ring and ball test on the
bitumen sample given, it is found that
the softening point of the bitumen is at
the 56C . Its mean that , the bitumen
when pour at site for the roadway
construction will behave softly at that
temperature and before design for road
pavement, the softening point must take
into account so that will reduce the
maintainance for the road. We didnt
have any problem while doing this test;
We have tried our best to achieve the
objective of the test. Avoid bringing in
and bringing out the standard ring-and
-ball test holder to being used and the
progress running smoothly. We are
success to maintain the temperature in
the water bath at 5 1C for 5 minutes.
Temperatures is important while paving
the road .It can cause settlement of the
vehicle wheel. So this experiment is
necessary to be done for knowing that
 HIGHWAY & TRAFFIC ENGINEERING LABORAT0RY JOURNAL
what is the temperature applicable to
determine the softening of bitumen.
REFERENCE
B.L. Pearce, Comparison of
Temperature Variations For
Softening Point Apparatus With
Varying Filler: Binder Ratio, Cape
Technikon, Department of Civil
Engineering PO Box 652, Cape
Town,8000
ASTM(1998).D26-95 Standard test
method for softening point of
bitumen(Ring-and-Ball Apparatus)
1998 Annual Books of ASTM
Standards, Volume V04.04,
American Society for Testing and
Materials, Philadelphia, PA 19103-
1187.
ASTM (1978): Standard Tests
Method for Resistance to Plastic
Flow of Bituminous Mixtures using
Marshall Apparatus. Annual Book
of ASTM Standards, Part 15, pp.425
-433.
Penetration is related to viscosity and
empirical relationship have been developed
for Newtonian materials. If penetration is
measured over a range of temperatures, the
temperature susceptibility of the bitumen can
be established. The nomograph as given in
Table 1 enables the PI to be deduced
approximately from the penetration at 25C
and the softening point temperature. Typical
values of PI are
Bitumen Type PI
Blown Bitumen >2
Conventional Paving Bitumen -2 to +2
Temperature Susceptible Bitumen <-2
Table 1
PI values can be used to determine the
stiffness (modulus) of bitumen at any
temperature and loading time. It can also, to a
limited extent, be used to identify a particular
type of bituminous material. One drawback
of the PI system is that it uses the change in
bitumen properties over a relatively small
range of temperatures to charactize bitumen;
extrapolations to extreme of the behavior can
be sometimes be misleading.
As we have done the both test, When the ring
and ball test is compared to the penetration
test, the value of penetration index (PI) is
almost zero (refer to appendix) it means
-2<PI<+2. So from the Table 1 we can say
that the bitumen will classify as Conventional
Paving Bitumen .