Using various thermal analytical methods for bitumen characterization

Recently, the modification of bituminous binders is an ongoing trend. However, most current analytical methods are insufficient to characterize bitumen. Generally, standardized laboratory techniques are often time and cost consuming. Moreover, they use one-purpose devices requiring a considerable amount of samples and solvents. Therefore, we investigated three special instrumental analytical techniques to find out bitumen properties. Our main objective was to obtain some additional parameters of bituminous binders to allow their more accurate description. The first studied method, thermogravimetric analysis operated especially in a high-resolution mode that can be used as a fingerprint area in spectrometry to determine the bitumen quality. The second one modulated differential scanning calorimetry provided many various important parameters, including temperature of glass transition, cold crystallization and serviceability limit state. The third one, the thermomechanical analysis also measured the value of glass-transition temperature for comparison with the method mentioned above. We have found correlations between the results from thermal instrumental techniques and standardized laboratory tests.