Wednesday, 25 October 2017
Austroads has published four new foamed bitumen stabilisation test methods.
Foamed bitumen stabilisation is used to improve the strength of granular materials while retaining a flexible pavement.
In the process, foamed bitumen is produced by injecting small amounts of water and air into standard road-grade bitumen at high pressure. This results in the bitumen expanding to around 20 times its original volume.
Foaming of bitumen allows it to be evenly distributed throughout a soil or a granular material. It can be mixed on site or in plants.
The test methods provide consistent ways to determine the foaming characteristics of bitumen and mix it with pavement materials.
They also describe the procedure for compacting cylindrical test specimens and testing mixes.
Test Method Links:
Determining the Foaming Characteristics of Bitumen