Effect of the properties of bituminous emulsions used for surface treatments in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Surface treatment can be used as a successful and economical method to any type of road, from trunk roads to gravel roads. The main objective of surface treatment is seal the existing road pavement thereby arresting disintegration and providing a user-friendly road network. However premature failures can be observed on surface treatment in many instances. Therefore a research study was carried out in order to find the causes for the unsatisfactory consistency. As the preliminary stage a field investigation was carried out on existing surface treated roads to identify the failures. Ongoing construction sites were also investigated. Database of the test results on the samples of binder collected at the sites as well as from the manufacturing plant were established. More attention was given to the properties, which are frequently out of the specification limits, and effect of these properties was studied The study has found that the properties such as viscosity, storage stability together with the size of the droplets and adhesivity play an important role in surface treatment. Some steps to be taken to improve these properties by carrying out further laboratory testing and also by observing the field performance of the modified bitumen emulsions.