Page 3 - Hub 4 Magazine issue 53

Total Bitumen
L-R: Rick Ashton, Market Development Manager, Total Bitumen with Tony Moss, Tarmac’s Contracts Manager.
Sustainability through durability with Total Styrelf®
The Mersey Gateway toll bridge connecting Widnes and Runcorn in Cheshire
“We need a PMB for this job!” said the specifier. The assumption is that all polymer modified binders are same? This is a common misconception amongst contractors and unfortunately even specifiers! Bitumen is a complex material with very useful engineering properties particularly its adhesion and waterproofing qualities. Bitumen has thermoplastic and viscoelastic properties bringing both benefits and inherent limitations in its unmodified form.
Unlike water which is a solid at freezing temperatures and liquid at room temperature bitumen displays both solid and liquid behaviour at all temperatures. This non Newtonian behaviour is tricky to understand. There is a competition to find which characteristic will take precedence in a given situation dependent on factors such as temperature, load and frequency of loading.
Increasing temperature means the bitumen takes on more liquid behaviour. This is useful for transporting the product in pipelines and for the coating of aggregates.
www.hub-4.com Nov 2018 - Issue 53
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