Sharif Digital Repository

In traffic engineering, one of the problems presented by slate pavement, besides being costly to repair and maintain, is the insufficient resistance of bitumen against traffic loads in low temperatures. In this study, the effect of synthesized basalt modifier has been assessed via four different tests to improve bitumen performance. Hence, the enhancement of resistance to traffic loads at low temperatures as an essential problem of asphalt superstructure in traffic engineering has been taken into account. The bending beam rheometer test was conducted at three temperatures of-6°C,-12°C, and-18°C, and the softening point and permeability index tests were performed. A Fourier transform infrared... 

Through the strategic highway research program (SHRP) project, time-temperature superposition (TTS) was used to reduce the loading time of bending beam rheometer (BBR) test. Based on TTS, stiffness of the asphalt binder after a two-hour loading time is similar to that after 60 s at 10 °C above. This study attempted to evaluate the TTS validity using finite element (FE) method by developing master curves in a broad range of low temperatures. The results indicated that TTS was neither valid for modified asphalt binders nor for neat binder. Also, in addition to the loading time dependency of m-value, limiting values of stiffness and m-value find no rheological acceptance. As a remedy, thermally... 

Heavy and extra heavy crude oils usually have a high weight percentage of asphaltene, which could induce many problems during production to refining processes. Also, asphaltene has the main role on the high viscosity of the heavy and extra heavy crude oils. In this paper, the effects of asphaltene characteristics on the crude oil rheological properties have been experimentally and theoretically investigated using different classes of the suspension models. For experimental investigation, the asphaltene was first precipitated from the original heavy crude oil and then 10 well-defined reconstituted heavy oil samples are made by dispersing the asphaltene into the maltene (i.e., deasphalted... 

Modified bitumen enhances the performance properties of asphalt mixtures. A number of studies in the last decade have evaluated the performance properties of modified binders at different service temperatures. It is however possible to evaluate some modified binder time-temperature characteristics and performance properties through their rheological master curves. In this research, styrene butadiene styrene, ethylene vinyl acetate, polyphosphoric acid and crumb rubber were used to modify a PG58-22 base binder. Rheological master curves for |G∗| and phase angles of these binders were generated using data from the dynamic shear rheometer and bending beam rheometer at temperatures ranging from... 

Temperature dependency of infrared band intensity for methylene rocking vibration could be used as indication for creation of solid crystals while decreasing temperature. In this work, different experiments were conducted to measure wax appearance temperature, WAT, such as cross polarized microscopy, rheometry and FTIR spectroscopy. Three Iranian crude oils were characterized based on the SARA test and PC-SAFT model was developed to predict WAT. The obtained results by FTIR spectroscopy and PC-SAFT model were in quite agreement. FTIR spectroscopy determined higher WAT values which may be due to its higher sensitivity to smaller wax crystals. Also, the effect of a polymeric crystal modifier... 

Transient elongational rheology of PP is investigated experimentally. A specifically designed fixture consisting of two drums mounted on a TA Instruments ARES rotational rheometer was used to measure the transient uniaxial extensional viscosity of two commercial grades polypropylene in the molten state. The Hencky strain was varied from 0.003 to 2 s-1 and the temperature was fixed at 180 °C. The measurements show that the steady state elongational viscosity was reached at the measured Hencky strains for polypropylene. Eslami and Grmela have recently introduced a reptation diffusion term arising from the intermolecular chain forces into the rigid FENE-P dumbbells model. The same approach has... 

In the present article, cure kinetics of a commercially available composite friction material used in railroad vehicles is investigated using the rheometer measurements. Effect of ingredients of friction material compound, including rubber matrix, phenolic resin, and fillers, on overall cure kinetics of friction compound is also investigated by comparing the cure kinetics of friction material and rubber matrix compound. A phenomenological model and an Arrhenius-type equation is developed for cure kinetics and induction time of both friction material and rubber matrix. The parameters of the models are extracted from experimental data, using the rheometer at different temperatures and... 

An experimental rheological study has been performed to evaluate the influence of TiC addition on the rheological behavior and stability of 316L stainless steel powder injection molding (PIM) feedstock. The effects of TiC concentration, solid loading, shear rate and temperature were investigated via capillary rheometer method. The stability of feedstocks was evaluated quantitatively using "instability index", which describes the threshold beyond which the variation of viscosity becomes unacceptable for PIM purposes. The results show that the rheological behavior of PIM feedstocks highly depends on the blend composition. The addition of TiC particles to the stainless steel powder increases... 

Processing conditions and final mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites are affected by their interfacial layers behavior. However, it is impossible to determine directly the properties of these layers by dynamic rheometry tests. In this work, the interfacial layers properties are evaluated for polystyrene containing silica nanoparticles by the concept of glass-transition temperature shift. The samples were prepared via solution-mixing method and dynamic rheometry was used to determine the viscoelastic behavior of filled polymers in the melt state. This initial step showed that addition of silica particles increased the glass-transition temperature. By preference, decrease in the... 

Attempts were made to trace the effect of organoclay (OC) on the rheological and mechanical behaviors of the low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) blends. To do this effectively, in addition to LDPE/EVA/OC system, pure LDPE and LDPE/EVA blends were also examined as model systems. The rheological behavior was determined by the capillary rheometer. Morphological characterization was also carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and theoretical approach based on interfacial energies. Shear viscosity, tensile strength and elastic modulus of LDPE/EVA were found to decrease by increasing the EVA... 

Thermal cracking is the prevalent type of distress experienced by asphalt pavements in cold regions. It is widely assumed that when thermal stresses induced in the pavement exceed the tensile strength of the asphalt surface layer, cracking occurs; however, the role of thermal fatigue should not be ignored. To better describe the low-temperature (LT) performance properties of modified asphalt binders, a new parameter, normalised tensile stress (NTS), was defined in this research. NTS values were compared with bending beam rheometer (BBR), direct tension (DT) and semi-circular bending (SCB) fracture test results. The m-value parameter of the BBR test specifies the type of asphalt binder. This... 

Thermal cracking is the prevalent type of distress experienced by asphalt pavements in cold regions. It is widely assumed that when thermal stresses induced in the pavement exceed the tensile strength of the asphalt surface layer, cracking occurs; however, the role of thermal fatigue should not be ignored. To better describe the low-temperature (LT) performance properties of modified asphalt binders, a new parameter, normalised tensile stress (NTS), was defined in this research. NTS values were compared with bending beam rheometer (BBR), direct tension (DT) and semi-circular bending (SCB) fracture test results. The m-value parameter of the BBR test specifies the type of asphalt binder. This... 

This study investigated the effect of gilsonite and Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) as asphalt binder modifiers on the physical and rheological properties of asphalt binders. For this, binder tests such as penetration test, softening point, rotational viscosity (RV), Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), and Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) were conducted on the neat and modified binders. The effect of gilsonite and SBS on the binder temperature susceptibility was also investigated by measuring Penetration Index (PI), Activation Energy (AE) and Viscosity-Temperature Susceptibility (VTS) of all the study binders. Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) test was directed toward investigation of... 

Different grades of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were dispersed in poly(tetramethylene ether glycol) (PTMEG) without any solvent in the presence of a block copolymer dispersing agent by ultrasonication at a temperature well above the melting point of the PTMEG. The state of CNT dispersion at different length scales was evaluated by using optical microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy, rheological measurements, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis and sedimentation tests. Optical microscopy can be used to characterize the state of dispersion and CNT network formation on a micrometer scale, whereas UV-Vis provides useful information about the dispersion of individual CNTs at...