Analysis of petroleum pavement bitumins in the road industry of ukraine

Abstract

The government program “Big Constructing” has started in 2020. It aims construction and reconstruction of 6.5 thousand km. of automobile roads in Ukraine. More than 80 % of road pavements in Ukraine are made from asphalt concrete, and their quality mostly is a matter of properties of bitumen that was used as a component of the asphalt mixture. Taking into consideration the fact that last twenty years among 6 oil refineries that producing pavement bitumen in Ukraine left one only, most of pavement bitumen in Ukraine road industry is an import of neighbor countries. In 2020 the 516.3 thousand tones of pavement bitumen is an import, and it is in 1.64 times more than at a same period of last year. With this the amount of sources of import is growing up, and includes Italy, Greece and Turkish now. This information raises the problem of finding the quality indicators for bitumen from oil refineries of different Europe countries and their comparative analysis, which is in the aim of this research work. The bitumen from Ukraine, Belarus, Italy, Greece and Turkish, which used in pavement industry of Ukraine, is a material of presented research. All this bitumen has no certificate of conformity to DSTU 4044 standard. For all this bitumen performed evaluation of quality parameters, according with DSTU 4044 and DSTU EN 12591. It was found that with Fraas breaking temperature the several of European bitumens aren’t met the requirements of DSTU 4044. Special attention is paid to finding and evaluation of structural type of bitumen and its adhesion property. With Penetration Index all European bitumen can be classified as sol-gel type with approaching to sol type. In contrast with this Ukrainian bitumen is approaching to gel type with its structure. This difference in a type of a structure specifies the high and low temperature performance of bitumens and their temperature susceptibility. In a frame of this work adhesion is evaluated with an antistripping property for bitumen virginal and after RTFOT or TFOT hardening. Aiming the increasing in accuracy of bitumen quality evaluation and in predicting of its influence on asphalt concrete durability it is suggested to include the antistripping index (on a glass surface) bitumen after RTFOT hardening into Technical Conditions on pavement bitumen.