Bitumen, Tar and Asphalt

Bitumen
• Bitumen is a non-crystalline solid or viscous material derived from
petroleum, by natural or refinery process.
• It is asphalt in solid state and mineral tar in semi solid state.
• Bitumen is brown or black in color.
• The main constituents of bitumen are:
– Petrolene: a yellowish oily substance, an excess of which makes bitumen to
melt at low temperature, and
– Asphaltene: hard black substance, and excess of which makes bitumen
brittle and non-plastic.
• Bitumen is not affected by light, air or water individually, but in
combination they can make it brittle, porous and susceptible to
oxidation forming blisters and cracks.
• It becomes soft at temperatures between 30 – 100 oC (no sharp
melting point).
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 Bituminous materials
• The term ‘bituminous materials’ is generally taken
to include all materials consisting of aggregate
bound with either bitumen or tar.
• Materials of this kind are used almost exclusively
in road construction. However, bitumen and tar
on their own have other uses in construction.
• For example, bitumen is used in roofing materials
and as a protective/waterproof coating.

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 Bituminous materials
• The use of tar in road building materials began in
early 20th century after advent of motor vehicle.
• At that time, Macadam waterbound roads were
constructed . Motor vehicles generated dust on
macadam roads, which led to the use of tar as a
dressing to bind the surface.
• A very wide range of bituminous mixtures have
evolved to suit the wide variety of circumstances
in which they are used.

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Essential features of Asphalt

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Essential features of macadam

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 Bituminous materials
• Bituminous materials are used in ‘flexible’
construction. The alternative is ‘rigid’ construction
where the road consists essentially of a concrete
slab.
• In flexible construction there are a number of
layers to the road structure.
• Bituminous materials may be used in wearing and
base course.
• However, wearing course asphalt differs from a
basecourse asphalt.
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Structure of flexible road

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 Constituents of bituminous materials
• Bituminous materials consist of a graded
aggregate bound together with bitumen.
• Thus, they are two-phase materials and their
properties depend upon the properties of
individual phases as well as the mix proportions.
• Aggregate is stiff and hard, whereas the bitumen
is flexible and soft and is particularly susceptible
to temperature change.

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 Bitumen resources
• (a) Natural bitumen, (b) Refinery bitumen
• Natural bitumen
– Bitumen occurs naturally, formed from petroleum by geological
forces and always in intimate association with mineral
aggregates.
– Types of deposit range from almost pure bitumen to bitumen-
impregnated rocks and bituminous sands with only a few
percent bitumen.
– Rock asphalt consists of porous limestone or sandstone
impregnated with bitumen with typical bitumen content of
10%.
– Lake asphalt consists of a bitumen ‘lake’ with finely divided
mineral matter dispersed throughout the bitumen.
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 Bitumen resources
• Refinery bitumen
– Bitumen is the residual material left after the fractional
distillation of crude oil.
– Crudes vary in their bitumen content.
– The lighter paraffinic crudes (Middle East & North Sea) have a
low bitumen content.
– Heavier crudes (known as asphaltic crudes), such as those from
US, contain more bitumen with is more easily extracted.

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 Manufacture of refinery bitumen
• The process of refining crude oil yields a range of
products, as shown in Fig. below.
• These products are released at different temperatures.
• Bitumen is the residual material.

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 Types of bitumen – penetration grades
• Refinery bitumen are produced with a range of viscosities and are
known as penetration grade bitumens.
• The term derives from the test which is used to characterize them
according to hardness.
• The range of penetration grades for road bitumens is from 15 to
450, although the most commonly use are in rang 50 to 200.

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 Oxidized bitumen
• Refinery bitumen may be further processed by air
blowing.
• This consists of introducing air under pressure into a soft
bitumen under controlled temperature conditions.
• The oxygen in the air reacts with certain compounds in
the bitumen resulting in the formation of compounds of
higher molecular weight.
• Use: roofing and pipe coating.
• Road bitumen known as heavy duty (HD) bitumen is also
produced by this process.

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 Cutbacks
• At ambient temperature bitumen can be more or less
solid and to enable it to be used for road construction, it
must be temporarily changed into a fluid state. It is
achieved by raising temperature.
• However, for surface dressing and some type of
bituminous mixtures, it is necessary to have a fluid binder
that can be applied and mixed at low temperatures, but
have adequate hardness after laying.
• Cutback bitumens are penetration grade bitumen which
have their viscosity temporarily reduced by dilation in a
volatile oil.
• After application, volatile oil evaporates and bitumen
reverts to its former viscosity. 15
 Properties of bitumen
• Viscosity
– Viscosity depends greatly on temperature.
– At low temperature, bitumen has great viscosity and acquire
the properties of a solid body. With increase in temperature the
viscosity of bitumen decreases and it passes into liquid state.
• Ductility
– Ductility depends upon temperature, group composition and
nature of structure.
– Viscous bitumens containing solid paraffins at low temperature
are very ductile.

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 Properties of bitumen
• Softening point
– Softening point is related to viscosity. Bitumen needs sufficient
fluidity before specific application.
• Resilience
– Bitumen is resilient, non-rigid.
– It is capable of absorbing shocks and accommodate itself to the
movement in structure due to temperature, settlement or
shrinkage.

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 Uses of bitumen
• Flexible pavement construction.
• It is used in damp-proof course in walls, under
basements and in lining tanks, swimming pools,
etc.
• It is used for filling up the joints in leaky roofs.
• It is used for making heat insulating materials for
buildings.

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 Tar
• Tar
– It is a black viscous liquid produced by destructive distillation of
organic materials such as coal, peat, wood, or oil.
– Depending upon the source of origin, it is classified as coal tar,
wood tar, and mineral tar.
• Uses
– It is used for roofing and road making.
– It is used for making bituminous paints and water-proofing
compounds.
– Coal tar is used as a preservative for timber.

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 Tar
• Coal tar
– It is obtained, as a byproduct in the destructive distillation of
coal, or in the manufacture of coal gas.
– It is heavy, strong smelling and black.
– It has high specific gravity and viscosity, and good adhesive
properties.
• Wood tar
– It is obtained by destructive distillation of resinous wood (pine
etc.)
• Mineral tar
– It is produced by distillation of bituminous shales.
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 Asphalt
• Asphalt is defined as natural or mechanical
mixture in which bitumen is associated with inert
mineral matter.
• It is solid or semi-solid sticky product, formed by
partial evaporation or distillation of certain
petroleum oils.

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 Properties of asphalt
• It is sticky or adhesive and binds strongly as cement. It
adheres perfectly to wood, stone, concrete and metal.
• It is water-proof.
• It is durable and retains its properties for several years.
• It is elastic.
• It becomes plastic and workable when heated.
• If is not seriously affected by adverse weather.
• It is ductile and can be stretched without breaking.

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 Uses of asphalt
• It is used as damp-proof-course (DPC) for preventing dampness in
walls, floors and roof of buildings.
• It is used as water repellent layer over flat-roofs, arches and
basements.
• It is used for lining walls of tanks, swimming pools and in other
such places.
• It is used for preparing paints and roofing felts.
• It is the form of asphalt mortar and asphalt concrete which is
extensively used for paving roads in different ways such as surface
dressing, grouted macadam, coated macadam, etc.
• It is used for flooring purposes

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 Types of asphalt
• Natural asphalt
– Lake asphalt: it is obtained from lakes of Trinidad and Bermudez
(South America) at depths varying from 3 to 60 m. it is a
composite mineral containing about 40 to 70 % of pure
bitumen.
– Rock asphalt: It is natural asphalt impregnated in limestone
rocks found in some parts of Switzerland, France, and Germany.
It contains about 4 to 20 % pure bitumen by volume, the rest
consists of calcareous materials
• Petroleum asphalt
– It is also known artificial asphalt. It is obtained by fractional
distillation of crude petroleum oils.

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 Forms of asphalt
• Cut-back asphalt
– It is a liquid asphalt and is prepared by dissolving asphalt in a
volatile solvent. It can be applied at normal temperature in cold
condition.
– Uses: used for preparing bituminous paints, for repairing roofs.
• Mastic asphalt
– it is manufactured by adding pulverized natural rock gradually
to molten refined bitumen, agitating the mixture for about 5
hours (200-250 oC) and placing it into moulds for cooling.
– The mass consolidates into hard elastic blocks which can be re-
melted when used for pavements.
– It is tough, durable, nonabsorbent, damp proof, and noiseless.
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 Forms of asphalt
• Asphaltic cement
– It is prepared by blowing air through melted asphalt at high
temperature. The asphalt is oxidised and the resulting product
is plastic in nature.
– Uses: roofing, flooring, water proofing and in expansion joints in
concrete.
• Asphaltic emulsion
– It is prepared by mixing asphalt with 50 to 60 % water in
presence of 1 % of emulsifying agent.
– On evaporation of water, the emulsion breaks and it forms a
water proofing layer.
– It can be applied in cold conditions.
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