Traditional bituminous binders present various limitations to cope with excessive overloading and increasingly severe climate conditions of today. Traffic loading is increasing rapidly as a consequence of a tremendous worldwide increase in the number of vehicles, their axle loads and pressure.
Binder modification can be considered as a major breakthrough and the continuous research in this area is aimed to produce new binders with better rheological and mechanical characteristics which allow the manufacturing and application of road bituminous mixes with higher performances.
The improvement of traditional bitumens is normally based on the modification of their internal structures in order to achieve the following objectives
- To reduce thermal susceptibility to both low and high temperatures.
- To improve the binders to fatigue by increasing their mechanical
resistance and particularly to tractive force. At the same time, to
improve the binders elastic qualities to better cope with cracking and
dynamic deformation of the pavements internal layers.
- To increase life span and resistance to ageing