BITUMEN PENETRATION TEST

Objective
To determinate the penetration of bitumen.

Principle- Penetration of a bituminous material is the distance

in tenths of millimetre that standard needle will penetrate
vertically into a sample under standard conditions of
temperature, load and time.

Observation Table
 DUCTILITY TEST
Objective
To measure the ductility of a given sample of bitumen

Principle- The ductility test gives a measure of adhesive

property of bitumen and its ability to stretch. Ductility of a
bituminous material is measured by the distance in centimetres
to which it will elongate before breaking when two ends of
standard briquette specimen of material are pulled apart at a
specified speed and specified temperature.

RECOMMENDED VALUES:
The ductility values vary 5 to 100 for different bitumen
grades.
The minimum ductility value of 75 cm has been specified by
ISI for bitumens of grade 45 and above
 TO DETERMINE THE VISCOSITY OF
BITUMEN USING TAR VISCOMETER
Objective
To determine the viscosity of bitumen using tar viscometer

Cutback bitumen 0 1 2 3 4
5
SC,MC,RC of grades

Orifice size (mm) 4.0 4.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0

Test Temperatures(C) 25 25 25 25 40 40

Viscosity Ranges 25- 30-

10-20 25-75 14-45 60-140
75 250

Principle At high fluidity or low viscosity, bitumen binder

simply lubricates the aggregate particles instead of providing an
uniform film thickness for binding action. Low fluidity or high
viscosity does not enable the bitumen to coat the entire surface
of aggregate in the mix easily and also resists the compactive
effort and resulting mix is heterogeneous in character.
RECOMMENDED VALUES:
 SOFTENING POINT TEST
Objective
To determine the softening point of bitumen/ tar.

Principle The Softening Point of bitumen or tar is the

temperature at which the substance attains particular degree of
softening. As per IS: 334-1982, it is the temperature in C at
which a standard ball passes through a sample of bitumen in a
mould and falls through a height of 2.5 cm, when heated under
water or glycerine at specified conditions of test.

RECOMMENDED VALUES:
Softening point vary between 35o to 75o
 FLASH POINT & FIRE POINT TEST
Objective
To determine the flash and fire point of bitumen

Principle - Bituminous material leave out volatiles at high

temperatures depending upon their grade. These volatile vapours
catch fire causing a flash.
The flash point of a material is the lowest temperature at which
vapour of a substance momentarily take fire in the form of flash.
The fire point is the lowest temperature at which the material
gets ignited and burns under specific conditions of test.
RECOMMENDED VALUES:
The minimum value of flash point is 175C for all grades of
bitumen.
 STRIPPING VALUE TEST
Objective
To determine stripping value of an aggregate.

Principle The test is conducted to determine effects of

moisture upon the adhesion of bituminous film to the surface
particles of the aggregate. The test is of significance to both
bitumen and aggregate because one particle of aggregate may be
satisfactorily with one binder and unsatisfactory with the other
binder

RECOMMENDED VALUES:
IRC has recommended that stripping value of an aggregate
should not be more than 25% for use in bituminous surface
dressing,

BITUMEN EXTRACTION TEST

Objective
To determine the bitumen content in the bituminous mix by
cold solvent extraction.

Principle- Use this test method to determine, by four cold

solvent extraction procedures, the percentage of asphalt in
paving mixture based on the weight of an asphalt and aggregate
mixture. The aggregate and fines recovered can be used for sieve
analysis

MARSHALL STABILITY TEST

Objective
To find out optimum bitumen content of given mix.

Principle- In this method the resistance to plastic deformations of

cylindrical specimen of bituminous mixture is measured when the same
is loaded at the periphery at 5 cm per minute. This test procedure is used
in designing and evaluating bituminous paving mixes.

Specific gravity of compacted specimens

Where W1= percent of weight of

coarse aggregates,
W2= percent of weight of fine aggregates,
W3= percent of weight of filler,
W4= percent by weight of bitumen in total mix,
G1, G2, and G3 are apparent specific gravity values of the coarse aggregates, fine
aggregates and filler respectively and G4 is the specific gravity of bitumen.