Characterization Of Penetration-Grade Bitumen Blended With Lighter Petroleum Products

Low penetration-grade bitumen is mixed with each of three lighter petroleum products (kerosene, diesel, and lubricating oil) to produce blended bitumen for priming the surface of road during construction of road pavement. The flash point, penetration, and viscosity, of the various bitumen blends are investigated experimentally. The penetration of each bitumen blend increases while both the viscosity and flash point decrease as the concentration of diluent in the bitumen blend increases. These effects are more pronounced with kerosene as the diluent, followed by diesel, and then lubricating oil. The volume of each diluent used in the analysis varies from 1ml to 10ml in steps of 1ml per 100ml of pure bitumen and the corresponding ranges of flash point of the various bitumen blends are 1580C-560C for kerosene, 2020C-1480C for diesel, and 2210C-2100C for lubricating oil; the corresponding ranges of penetration of the bitumen blends are 105pen-230pen for kerosene, 78pen-230pen for diesel, and 66pen-212pen for lubricating oil; the corresponding ranges of viscous flow time are 4.0s-1.4s for kerosene, 4.3s-2.3s for diesel, and 4.3s-3.2s for lubricating oil. It is shown that kerosene is the best of the three diluents considered in the analysis for preparing blended bitumen for priming during road surfacing. Keywords : Penetration-grade bitumen; Kerosene; Diesel; Lubricating oil; Viscosity; Flash point. Global Journal of Engineering Research Vol. 7 (1) 2008: pp. 1-6