Film formation properties of asphalt emulsion under ambient temperature drying

ABSTRACT

The film formation properties of asphalt emulsion under ambient temperature drying are important to the mechanical properties of cold asphalt emulsion mixture. Nevertheless, the importance of these properties is not fully understood yet. The dynamic modulus and bonding ability of emulsion residue were studied to characterise the film formation properties of asphalt emulsion. The maximum packing fraction of asphalt droplets (ϕ_m) formed during drying was proposed to quantitatively characterise the film structure of emulsion residue. The relationship between the film properties and ϕ_m of asphalt emulsion was studied to reveal the mechanism for the different film formation properties of asphalt emulsions. Results showed that the residue properties of different asphalt emulsions could be significantly different due to the various film structure of emulsion residue formed under ambient temperature drying. The dynamic modulus and bonding ability of emulsion residue can linearly increase with the ϕ_m of asphalt emulsion. Besides, the ϕ_m of asphalt emulsion is decreased with the increasing asphalt droplet size. Therefore, to ensure higher dynamic modulus and bonding ability of emulsion residue, asphalt emulsion with small droplets size is recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Asphalt emulsion
• film formation
• bonding
• asphalt droplet size
• emulsion residue

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [grant number 52178417]; Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning province: [grant number 2020-MS-116]; Science Technology Innovation Project from Department of Transportation of Hunan province: [grant number 202109].