Investigation of the effect of mixing parameters on the modification procedure of polymer modified bituminous binders

Increasing cargo and passenger transportation in the developing world is mostly carried out by highways, which have an important place in transportation. Many additives have been developed against the base bitumen shortage caused by the oil crises in the last half century and the deterioration of the highways over time. Among these additives, the most widely used additive known as elastomer polymer is Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) copolymer. In this study, polymer modified bitumen was produced by mixing SBS (Hiprene S) with base bitumen with a penetration value of 50/70. The effect of mixing parameters on the modification of the produced polymer modified bitumen binder samples was investigated. In this thesis, the suitable values were determined for the mixing conditions used in the literature were determined and twelve different modified bitumen combinations were created. Then, the conventional tests such as penetration test, softening point determination test, Brookfield viscosity test and thin film oven test for short-term aging were carried out to determine the mixing parameters of polymer modified bitumen binders by looking at the properties of the polymer modified bitumen and the changes in the morphological structure of the polymer modified bitumen with fluorescence microscopy. It has been determined how effective it is in the modification. As a result, the most suitable mixing conditions; 175±5°C as the mixing temperature, 2000 rpm as the mixing speed and 60 minutes as the mixing time were determined.