| Abstract: | Effects of polymer content/structure and bitumen type on viscosity characteristics of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer modified bitumens were investigated. The study indicated that SBS polymers were not inert additives and increases in kinematic and dynamic viscosities of the modified bitumens were not directly proportional to polymer content; a marked viscosity increase was observed when the polymer content increased from 3 to 6% by weight of the blend. Modification with a sufficiently high polymer content also increased the degree of non-Newtonian behaviour of the bitumens. The base bitumens and modified bitumens containing 3% SBS were observed to be essentially shear rate independent, while those containing 6 or 9% SBS displayed shear-thinning behaviour. Compared to the modified bitumens with linear SBS, the modified bitumens with branched SBS demonstrated a higher degree of shear-thinning behaviour. These effects were dependent on ranges of shear rate and temperature. The increased degree of non-Newtonian behaviour was observed to influence the correlations between kinematic and dynamic viscosities. |
