Foamed Bitumen 4
Foamed Bitumen 4
Foamed Bitumen 4
1 Introduction
Foamed bitumen stabilisation is a road construction
technique whereby hot bitumen is used to bind the
existing or imported granular material to produce a
flexible bound pavement material for use in base
and subbase pavement layers, and in particular for
road rehabilitation.
Foamed bitumen as a binder was realised in 1956 by
Dr Ladi Csanyi at the Engineering Experiment
Station in Iowa State University, USA. The
original construction process designed by Csanyi
consisted of injecting steam into hot bitumen to
produce the foamed bitumen. The steam foaming
approach was very convenient for stationary asphalt
plants, but it proved too difficult for insitu
operations with the type of equipment available in
the 1950s to 1960s.
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5 Materials
The bitumen used for this process is typically Class
170 complying with AS 2008. The amount of
bitumen required for stabilisation is dependent on
the pavement material and is determined using
laboratory testing.
7 Tips on sealing
Due to the inherent bitumen content in pavements
stabilised with foamed bitumen, the adhesion of
bitumen wearing courses is usually excellent.
However, the application rates for these bitumen
wearing courses over foamed bitumen stabilised
layers need to be looked at to prevent excess
bitumen problems (ie bleeding of seals and
instability of asphalt layers).
8 Specifications
Specialised plant is required for both insitu and plantmix foamed bitumen stabilisation. The Association
provides model specifications for the construction
of local and main roads, and a copy may be
obtained from the web site at
www.auststab.com.au/specifications/
10
Monitoring trials
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11
References
12
Bibliography
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