Effect of carbon nanotube on the rheological properties of bitumen

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are one of the most widely used Nanomaterial that have two main features of light-weight and high strength material for tensile, compressive, impact and thermal stresses. In this study, different contents of carbon nanotube are used for the modification of the conventional bitumen. For the samples prepared by the ultrasonic mixer, it is observed that the agglomerated Nano-materials are peeled off and uniformly dispersed in bitumen. Then classical experiments of bitumen, x ray analysis, and rheological tests using Dynamic Shear Rheometer, were conducted on the modified bitumen. Master curves are plotted, and the results depicted that addition of 1.2 wt% of carbon nanotubes to the bitu-men have improved rheological properties of bitumen at high and low temperature service, significantly. Also addition of Nanotube was increased the stiffness and reduced the phase angle of base bitumen.