Construction and Building Materials 30 (2012) 495–499

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effects of diatomite on the properties of asphalt binder

Peiliang Cong ⇑, Shuanfa Chen, Huaxin Chen
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Transportation Materials of Ministry of Education, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Modified asphalt binders were prepared by melt blending with different contents of diatomite. Fourier
Received 9 September 2011 Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy was used to test the effects of diatomite on chemical properties
Received in revised form 1 November 2011 of asphalt binder. The effects of diatomite on the physical properties and dynamic rheological behaviors
Accepted 24 November 2011
of the modified asphalt were investigated. The high temperature storage stability and aging properties of
Available online 2 January 2012
the modified asphalt binders were also studied. Experimental results indicated that there is no chemical
reaction occurred between asphalt binder and diatomite. The storage stability tests indicated that the
Keywords:
asphalt modified with diatomite is very stable when diatomite content is less than 20%. With the
Asphalt
Diatomite
enhancement of the content of diatomite to asphalt, both viscosity and complex modulus of modified
Rheological properties asphalt binders increased rapidly at high temperatures. Furthermore, the diatomite modified asphalt
Viscosity binders exhibited lower phase angle when temperature below to 5 °C. As a consequence, the viscoelastic
properties of the diatomite modified asphalt binders was modified, which improve its resistance to defor-
mation at high temperatures and the resistance to thermal cracking at low temperature.
Crown Copyright Ó 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction should be made for exploring new modifiers of asphalt to obtained

Asphalt is an organic mixture with various chemical composi-
tions, which has been widely used as an adhesive material in many
fields, especially in pavement construction due to its good visco-
elastic properties [1–3]. A little amount of asphalt (4–8% by
weight) is usually suitable for acceptable pavement performance.
Unfortunately, asphalt binder is a form of liquid at high tempera-
ture and becomes brittle at low temperatures, which can cause
high temperature rutting, low temperature cracking, fatigue, etc.
[4,5]. Furthermore, increasing traffic volume, heavy traffic load
and severe weather accelerate the asphalt pavement deterioration.
So, asphalt binder should be stiffness enough to resist rutting, flex-
ible enough at low temperature to avoid thermal cracking and vis-
coelastic enough to show good fatigue and stripping resistances
[6–9]. Base asphalt is not capable of doing so. The modification
of asphalt is an attempt to improve the performance of asphalt bin-
der. Various elastomer and plastomer modifiers have been used to
improve rut resistance, fatigue resistance, cracking resistance and
stripping resistance [10–14]. However, there are a relatively few
polymers which are available as asphalt modifiers. When the poly-
mer was used as asphalt modifiers, the polymers should be com-
patible with asphalt in blended process with conventional mixing
equipments and can maintain their main properties during pro-
longed storage at high temperature [15]. Therefore, further efforts
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 29 82337349.
E-mail address: congpl@chd.edu.cn (P. Cong).
better properties.
Diatomite is a type of mineral with low cost and abundance,
which used in industry as filler, filtering agent, absorbent, clarifier,
and insulator. The diatomite is a sedimentary rock, white to light
yellow in color, composed of the fossilized skeletons of diatoms,
one celled algae-like plants which accumulates in marine or lacus-
trine environments [16]. The skeletons are composed of amor-
phous silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2), a very durable substance.
Besides its amorphous silica content diatomite rocks commonly
contain carbonate and clay minerals, quartz and feldspars. Diatoms
skeletons are honeycomb silica structures that give diatomite use-
ful characteristics such as high absorptive capacity and surface
area, chemical stability, and low bulk density [17]. It is also called
diatomaceous earth or organogenetic sedimentary rock.
Recently, most mineral materials have been widely used for the
modification of polymers. The layered silicates have been success-
fully used to improve the thermal, mechanical and barrier proper-
ties of polymers [18–20]. SBS/KC compounds have been
successfully used to improve the high temperature storage stabil-
ity of SBS modified asphalt [21,22]. Diatomite was often used as
the filler of polymer due to its lightweight, high void content,
low density and strong sorption performance. However, there have
been a few reports about the preparation of the diatomite modified
asphalt.
In this paper, modified asphalts were prepared by melt blending
with diatomite powder. The chemical property of asphalt binder,
diatomite and diatomite modified asphalt binder was analyzed
separately by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. The

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright Ó 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.11.011
496 P. Cong et al. / Construction and Building Materials 30 (2012) 495–499
effects of diatomite on the physical properties and dynamic rheo-
logical behaviors of the modified asphalt were investigated. The
high temperature storage stability and aging properties of the
modified asphalts were also studied.
2. Experimental
2.1. Raw materials
The asphalt type of AH-70 was obtained from Panjin Petrochemical Industry,
Liaoning Province of China, with penetration of 73 (0.1 mm at 25 °C, 100 g and
5 s), softening point of 45.6 °C, ductility of at least 150 cm (at 15 °C) and viscosity
of 0.44 Pa s (at 135 °C).
Diatomite was obtained from Shenzhen Jitong diatomaceous Earth Co. Ltd., with
bulk density 0.29 g cm3, maximum particle size 19 lm, PH 7.2.
2.2. Methods
The diatomite modified asphalt binders were prepared using FLUKO FM300
mixer. Asphalt binder was heated until it has become sufficiently fluid at around
150 °C in the mixer. After that, diatomite was added into asphalts and, the mixtures
were blended at 3000 rpm rotation speed about 30 min to ensure the diatomite uni-
formly dispersing in the asphalt binders.
Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy (NEXUS, Thermo Nicolet, USA)
was used to obtain the IR spectra of asphalt binder. Sample was prepared by casting
film onto a potassium bromide (KBr) thin plate, and the spectra were obtained by
4 cm1 resolution.
Brookfield viscometer (Model DV-II+, Brookfield Engineering Inc., USA) was em-
ployed to measure the rolling viscosity of modified asphalt binders in according to
ASTM D4402. Approximately 30 g of asphalt are heated in an oven so that it is suf-
ficiently fluid to pour into the sample chamber. The amounts of asphalt used vary
with the different sizes of the spindles. The sample chamber containing the asphalt
sample is then placed in the thermo container. After the desired temperature is sta-
bilized for about 30 min, the spindle is lowered into the chamber to test the
viscosity.
The storage stability of diatomite modified asphalt binders was tested as fol-
lowing procedure: before the sample was poured into a glass tube, the inner wall
of the glass tube was coated a thin layer of isolated agent made by glycerin and
French chalk powders at the weight ratio 2:1. The tube was sealed by soft tampion,
and stored vertically and immovably in an oven at 163 ± 5 °C for 48 h. Then the
glass tube containing the diatomite modified asphalt was took out of the oven
and put into an icebox for 4 h ± 5 min to solidify the sample. All glass tubes were
broke into pieces with a hammer carefully to remain unbroken cylindrical asphalt
samples. The cylindrical asphalt sample was cut horizontally into three equal sec-
tions. The sections from the top and bottom were placed in separate dishes in an
oven at 163 °C until asphalt binder has well fluid to pour into softening point rings.
The difference in softening points (DS) between top and bottom sections as well as
the change compared with the original asphalt was used to evaluate the storage sta-
bility, that is, the segregation of the diatomite in the asphalt.
Dynamic shear properties were measured with Physical MCR 101 dynamic
shear rheometer (DSR, Anton Paar Inc., Austria) in a parallel plate with 1 mm gap
and 25 mm diameter at temperature range 30–90 °C, and a 8 mm diameter parallel
plate with 2 mm gap at temperature range 20 to 40 °C. A DSR temperature sweep
test was performed under the strain controlled mode at a constant frequency of
10 rad s1. All tests were performed within the linear viscoelastic range. Complex
modulus and phase angle at different temperatures were recorded automatically
during the test.
A bending beams rheometer (BBR), Cannon Instrument Company. was used to
conduct low temperature creep tests. The asphalt binder beams (125  12.5 
6.25 mm) were prepared in an aluminum mold. In preparation, the asphalt binder
was heated to a fluid condition, poured into the mold and allowed to cool down
at room temperature for approximately 90 min. The sample was then cooled to
approximately 5 °C for 1 min and demolded. Plastic strips were used to release
the beam from the mold. Sets of the sample beams were submerged in a methanol
bath with a constant temperature of 10 or 18 °C. After storage for different
lengths of time 60 min, the rectangular beam was placed on two stainless steel sup-
ports (102 mm apart) and loaded with 100 g. The deflection of the center point was
measured continuously with a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT). The
creep stiffness (S) and creep rate (m) of the binders were determined at loading
times 60 s.
The thin film over test (TFOT) was employed to simulate the short-term oxida-
tion that occurs during the hot mix process in accordance to ASTM D1754. The per-
cent retained penetration, aging index and increment of softening point all were
used to evaluate relative resistance of diatomite modified to oxidative aging over
an extended period of in-service pavement use. The related equations were ex-
pressed as follows:
Percent Retained Penetration : PRP ¼
P2
 100% ð1Þ
P1
Increment of softening point : DT ¼ T 2  T 1 ð2Þ
Aging Index : AI ¼ lg½lgðV 2  103 Þ  lg½lgðV 1  103 Þ ð3Þ
where P (0.01 mm), T (°C) and V (Pa s) denote penetration, softening point and vis-
cosity, respectively. The subscripts 1 and 2 present original and aged diatomite mod-
ified asphalt binders.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Diatomite properties
The key factors for diatomite quality exists by many oxides are
showed in Table 1 by ICP (Inductively coupled plasma, Atom Scan
2000) analysis, such as SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, MgO and CaO. But the
key factor to diatomite quality is the content of amorphous silica.
In diatomite making procedure, using different resources leads to
the change of content of SiO2. The content of SiO2 is the most
important component for the utilization of diatomite. The honey-
comb silica structure can give diatomite useful characteristics such
as high absorptive capacity, chemical stability and low bulk
density.
The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) test was conducted to
determine textural parameters of diatomite, such as BET surface
area, pore volume, pore area, and average pore diameter using sur-
face area apparatus (Model F-Sorb 2400, Beijing App-one Technol-
ogy Co., Ltd.). Results are tabulated in Table 2. As shown in Table 2,
the BET surface area of diatomite is 22.13 m2 g1. The surface area
of the macropore, mesopore and micropore regions of diatomite
was 0.76, 20.04 and 1.33 m2 g1, respectively. The total surface
area increased, primarily due to increases in the mesopore and
micropore regions. The increase of the mesopore area is due to
the partial blockage of macropores (exceed 50 nm) and larger mes-
opores (exceed 7 nm) by colloidal-size (2–5 nm) ferrihydrite parti-
cles. Similarly, the increase of micropore area can be attributed to
the pore blockage by colloidal-size ferrihydrite as well as addi-
tional micropores provided by microporous ferrihydrite.
3.2. FT-IR test
Fig. 1 gives Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy
analysis curves of original asphalt binder, diatomite and diatomite
modified asphalt binder with 15% diatomite at 25 °C. The results
indicated that the strong peaks of 2924 cm1 and 2853 cm1 are
the stretching vibration absorption bands of the alkyl (CAH) of as-
phalt binder. The CAH asymmetric deforming in CH2 and CH3, and
CAH symmetric deforming in CH3 vibrations are observed at
1461 cm1 and 1376 cm1. The characteristic absorption peak
around 1545–1640 cm1 is attributed to C@C stretching vibrations
in aromatics. The positions of absorption bands in the curves of
samples containing diatomite are nearly the same when diatomite
was added into asphalt. The only difference is the stretching vibra-
tion absorption band of SiAO appears at 1032 cm1, which is close
to the SiAO stretching vibration absorption band position of diato-
mite according to diatomite’s infrared absorption spectrum as
Fig. 1 showed. Besides this, no other new peak is appeared in the
infrared absorption spectrum of modified asphalt binder contain-
ing diatomite. Therefore, it can be confirmed from the analysis of
the infrared absorption spectrum that no chemical reaction is oc-
curred between asphalt and diatomite, the diatomite merely blend
physically with asphalt binders.
3.3. Rotational viscosity
The effect of viscosity on asphalt binder’s workability is very
important in selecting proper mixing and compacting tempera-
tures. The effects of the concentration of diatomite on rotational
 P. Cong et al. / Construction and Building Materials 30 (2012) 495–499 497

Table 1
Chemical composition of the diatomite.

Compositions SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO TiO2 MgO K2O Na2O Ignition loss
Content (%) 78.89 8.63 2.47 0.96 0.74 0.62 1.27 0.81 4.26

Table 2 requirement of viscosity. The rotational viscosity results indicated

Summary of BET data for diatomite. that the diatomite can improve the high temperature performance.
Textural parameters Results But the higher the percentage of diatomite would increase the con-
BET surface area (m2 g1) 22.13
structing difficulty.
Macropore region (m2 g1) 0.76
Mesopore region (m2 g1) 20.04 3.4. Storage stability
Micropore region (m2 g1) 1.33
Total pore volume (cm3 g1) 0.058
Macropore volume (cm3 g1) 0.02 The storage stability problem of modified asphalt binder is the
Mesopore volume (cm3 g1) 0.038 key technical problem in the use of many asphalt/modifier blends
Micropore volume (cm3 g1) 0.000449 as an actual alternative to original asphalt. The diatomite modified
Average pore diameter (nm) 9.35
asphalt binders are considered multiphase systems in which the
diatomite are dispersed into the asphalt binder phase, the differ-
ence in the solubility parameter and density between diatomite
and asphalt, phase separation would take place during storage at
higher temperatures due to Brownian motion followed by gravita-
tion. Granules of diatomite dispersed in asphalt are usually accu-
mulated and subside to the bottom of the asphalt, which may
cause changes in properties of asphalt binders between the top
and the bottom sections in the tube. The high temperature storage
stability of the diatomite modified asphalts is measured and the re-
sults are showed in Fig. 3. The differences between softening points
of the top and the bottom for diatomite modified asphalt binders
are 0.3 °C when the diatomite content are 5%, and it is 0.5, 0.9
and 1.4 °C for modified asphalt binder with 10%, 15% and 20%,
respectively. This indicated that storage stability of asphalt binder
modified with diatomite is very stable when the diatomite content
is less than 20%. However, the differences of softening point in the
Fig. 1. FTIR spectra of: (1) original asphalt binder, (2) diatomite modified asphalt top and the bottom increase with the increasing of diatomite con-
binder and (3) diatomite. tent. This is maybe attributed to the granules of diatomite are
accumulated and subsided to the bottom of the asphalt/diatomite
blending at a high temperature since the gravity effect. According
viscosity at 135 °C are showed in Fig. 2. The viscosity increases to the rule of the difference of softening point measurement is not
quickly when the diatomite content is lower than 20%. But the vis- more than 2.2 °C, the diatomite modified asphalt binder can be
cosity increasing trend decrease when the diatomite content is used in pavement after storing at high temperature for long time,
above 20%. The viscosity of original asphalt binder is 0.44 Pa s, it which is very convenient for user.
is 1.24 Pa s for modified asphalt binder with 15% diatomite. It
maybe attributing to the Einstein particle affects which is causing 3.5. Dynamic rheological properties
the increase in viscosity. From the consideration of practical appli-
cation, the optimum viscosity range for asphalt is not too high for The most important effects of modifier on asphalt binder are the
compacting asphalt mixture. If viscosity of modified asphalt binder changing of viscoelasticity because there is strong correlation be-
is too high, the mixture becomes too hard to compact the pave- tween rutting resistance and elastic modulus at high temperature.
ment and it is difficult to form an eligible pavement surface. There- Dynamic shear test can be used to determine the complex modulus
fore, the diatomite contents should strictly control to meet the (G⁄) and the phase angle (d). The complex modulus can be related

Fig. 2. Viscosities of diatomite modified asphalts versus diatomite contents at

135 °C. Fig. 3. Effect of diatomite content on the storage stability of the modified asphalt.
498 P. Cong et al. / Construction and Building Materials 30 (2012) 495–499
Fig. 4. Relation of temperature and complex modulus and phase angle at 10 rad/s.
to the material strength and the phase angle provides information
about the ratio between elastic and viscous response during the
shearing process. The curves of G⁄ and d versus temperature for
the diatomite modified asphalt binders in a range of temperature
20 to 40 °C is showed in Fig. 4. It can be seen that diatomite re-
sults in reduction of complex modulus and phase angle when tem-
perature lower than 5 °C. But diatomite increases the complex
modulus and decrease phase angle at high temperature. It is indi-
cated that the diatomite modified asphalt binders have better flex-
ibility than original asphalt binder at low temperature. The phase
angle is more sensitive to the chemical and physical structure of
modified asphalt binder. Phase angle is defined as the phase differ-
ence between stress and strain in an oscillatory test and it is zero
and 90° for elastic and viscous materials. The phase angle of diat-
omite modified asphalt binder is less than that of original asphalt
binder at the same temperature. The decreasing extent of phase
angle becomes greater with the content of diatomite increases at
test temperature. This trend revealed that the elastic response of
asphalt binder was improved when diatomite was added into as-
phalt binders. Fig. 5 showed that the curves of G⁄ and d versus tem-
perature for the diatomite modified asphalt binder in a range of
temperature 30–90 °C. The drastic increase in the complex modu-
lus exhibited a more viscoelastic behavior of the modified asphalts
than that of original asphalt binder at high temperature. Moreover,
it can be seen that with increasing diatomite contents, the complex
modulus of the modified asphalt binders increases significantly.
Compared with original asphalt binder, the phase angles of diato-
mite modified asphalt decreased at the same temperature. This
trend indicates the increase in elastic properties of the diatomite
modified asphalt binder at high temperature.
The Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) tests
take advantage of the rheological measurements to analyze the
Fig. 5. Relation of temperature and complex modulus and phase angle at 10 rad/s.
Fig. 6. Relation of temperature and G⁄/sin d at 10 rad/s.
Table 3
Effect of diatomite on high performance grade
of asphalt binder.
Diatomite content TSHRP (G⁄/
(%) sin d = 1 kPa)
0 70.8
5 72.2
10 75.9
15 78.3
properties of asphalt binders used in road pavements, which
adopted the temperature of the asphalts when G⁄/sin d is equal to
1 kPa as a criterion for the asphalt binder at high temperature.
The rheological parameter G⁄/sin d is defined as rutting parameter
to demonstrate resistance of asphalt to the permanent deformation
under repeated loads. Plots of rutting parameter versus tempera-
ture are displayed in Fig. 6 for original and diatomite modified as-
phalt binder. The rutting parameter of modified asphalt binder is
increased with diatomic contents increasing. As shown in Table
3, when G⁄/sin d was equal to 1 kPa the temperature of asphalt
binders was 70.8 °C for original asphalt binder, and it is 72.2 °C,
75.9 and 78.3 for diatomite modified asphalt binders with the con-
tents of 5 wt%, 10 wt% and 15 wt%, respectively. It is indicated that
the diatomite is more helpful for the improvement of rutting
resistance.
3.6. Low temperature creep properties
The bending beam rheometer (BBR) is used to accurately evalu-
ate asphalt binder properties at low temperatures at which asphalt
binders were too stiff to reliably measure rheological properties
using the parallel plate geometry of the DSR equipment [23,24].
The BBR test measured creep stiffness (S) and m-value (m) of as-
phalt binders. Stiffness indicated the susceptibility to low temper-
ature cracking as designated by SHRP. The Superpave technology
specified that the creep stiffness must not exceed 300 MPa to pre-
vent low temperature cracking. The low-temperature cracking of
pavement would be occurred only after a period of using, thus this
specification addresses these properties using aged asphalt binder.
The rate of change of asphalt binder stiffness with loading time
was represented by the m-value. A high m-value was desired. A
minimum m-value of 0.3 after 60 s was required by the Superpave
PG binder specification.
The effect of diatomite on stiffness and m-value of asphalt bin-
der at 10 and 18 °C is showed in Table 4. The results revealed
that the stiffness of all asphalt binder satisfies the SHRP Superpave
specifications at 10 °C, and all asphalt binders show higher than
the required minimum m-value. The high stiffness value was
 P. Cong et al. / Construction and Building Materials 30 (2012) 495–499 499

Table 4 thermo-oxidative aging resistance of asphalt binder remarkably.

Effect of diatomite on low temperature performance asphalt binder. The DSR test results indicated that modified asphalt binders exhib-
Diatomite content (%) 10 °C 18 °C ited higher complex modulus and lower phase angle when temper-
S (MPa) m S (MPa) m ature more than 5 °C. But the complex modulus of diatomite
modified asphalt binder was lower than that of original asphalt
0 89.5 0.438 312.3 0.302
5 94.9 0.447 337.3 0.293
when temperature lowers than 5 °C. Whereas the BBR test results
10 118.5 0.456 378.6 0.298 indicated that the stiffness increase when diatomite was added
15 129.3 0.451 461.2 0.284 into asphalt and the m-value show different changes at 10 °C
and 18 °C.

Table 5
Effect of short-term aging on related properties of diatomite modified asphalt binders.
Diatomite content (%) Mass loss (%) PRP (%) DT (°C)
0 0.138 78.3 4.7
5 0.117 81.1 4.6
10 0.108 82.9 4.4
15 0.096 86.7 4.1
obtained when diatomite was added into asphalt binder. Those
indicate that the asphalt concrete using diatomite modified asphalt
binders maybe susceptible to low temperature cracking, especially
in cold areas and/or weather. Nonetheless, the stiffness and m-va-
lue of the diatomite modified asphalt binders meets the SHRP
Superpave specifications at 10 °C. And the m-value of asphalt
binders increases when diatomite was added into. But original as-
phalt binder does not satisfy the SHRP Superpave specifications at
18 °C. The stiffness value increase and m-value decrease when
diatomite is added into asphalt when temperature is 18 °C.
Therefore, the diatomite does not improve availably the low tem-
perature properties of asphalt.
3.7. Aging properties
Table 5 lists the variation in related properties of modified as-
phalt binders with different content of diatomite after short-term
aging. The results show that the mass loss, softening point incre-
ment (DT) and aging index (AI) of modified asphalt binder de-
creases, and the percent retained penetration (PRP) increases
with diatomite content increasing after aging. Generally, the con-
tent of fractions with large molecules in asphalt increases and
the content of the small molecules decreased during the aging. It
leads to increase of the softening point and viscosity. But, diato-
mite restricts the oxidation of asphalt, which decreased the hard-
ening process of the asphalt. Thus, the results indicated that the
diatomite cannot affect remarkably the thermo-oxidative aging
resistance of asphalt.
4. Conclusions
Modified asphalt binders were prepared by melt blending with
the different contents of diatomite. The relative performance of
diatomite and modified asphalt binder were investigation. The
diatomite analysis results showed that the SiO2 is the key factor
to diatomite quality and the total surface area of diatomite in-
creased due to increase in the mesopore and micropore regions.
There is no chemical reaction occurred between asphalt and diato-
mite, the adding of diatomite merely lead to the physical blending
of asphalt and diatomite powers. The storage stability of the mod-
ified asphalts decreased with the increasing of diatomite content.
However, the difference of softening point in the top and the bot-
tom of the diatomite modified asphalt was not more than 1.5 °C
when the content of diatomite is lower than 20%. In addition, the
diatomite can increases the viscosity and cannot affect the
Acknowledgment
Supported by the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research of
AI
Central Colleges, Chang’an University (Number: CHD 2012JC058).
0.0185
0.0179
References
0.0116
0.0097
[1] Bahia HU, Anderson DA. Physical hardening of paving grade asphalts as related
to compositional characteristics. Preprints, Div Fuel Chem Am Chem Soc
1992;37(3):1397–407.
[2] Lamontagnea J, Dumas P, Mouillet V, et al. Comparison by Fourier transform
infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of different ageing techniques: application to road
bitumens. Fuel 2001;80:483–8.
[3] Cortizo MS, Larsen DO, Bianchetto H, et al. Effect of the thermal degradation of
SBS copolymers during the ageing of modified asphalts. Polym Degrad Stab
2004;86:275–82.
[4] Giavarini C, Filippis PD, Santarelli ML, et al. Production of stable polypropylene
modified bitumens. Fuel 1996;75(6):681–6.
[5] Lu XH, Isacsson U. Effect of ageing on bitumen chemistry and rheology. Constr
Build Mater 2002;16:15–22.
[6] Gonzalez O, Munoz ME, Santamarfa A, et al. Rheology and stability of bitumen/
EVA blends. Eur Polym J 2004;40(10):2365–72.
[7] Issa Camille A, Debs Pauls. Experimental study of epoxy repairing of cracks in
concrete. Constr Build Mater 2007;21(1):157–63.
[8] Morales M, Partal P, Navarro FJ. Viscous properties and microstructure of
recycled eva modified Bitumen. Fuel 2004;83(1):31–8.
[9] Krishnan JM, Rajagopal KR. On the mechanical behavior of asphalt. Mech Mater
2005;37(11):1085–100.
[10] Zhang BC, Xi M, Zhang DW, et al. The effect of styrene-butadiene-rubber/
montmorillonite modification on the characteristics and properties of asphalt.
Constr Build Mater 2009;23:3112–7.
[11] Ouyang CF, Wang SF, Zhang Y, et al. Preparation and properties of styrene-
butadiene-styrene copolymer/kaolinite clay compound and asphalt modified
with the compound. Polym Degrad Stab 2005;87:309–17.
[12] Guian Wen, Yong Zhang, Zhang Yinxi, et al. Rheological characterization of
storage-stable SBS modified asphalts. Polym Testing 2002;21(3):295–302.
[13] Michalica Peter, Kazatchkov Igor B, Stastna Jiri, et al. Relationship between
chemical and rheological properties of two asphalts of different origins. Fuel
2008;87(15–16):3247–53.
[14] Martínez Alejandro, Martin Nazario, Paez Antonio. Rheological modification of
bitumens with new poly-functionalized furfural analogs. Fuel 2008;
87(7):1148–54.
[15] Valtorta D, Poulikako LDs, Partl MN, et al. Rheological properties of polymer
modified bitumen from long-term field tests. Fuel 2007;86(7–8):938–48.
[16] Reguerio M, Calvo JP, Elizaga E, Calderon V. Spanish diatomite geology and
economics. Ind Minerals Rocks 1993;306:57–67.
[17] Degirmenci Nurhayat, Yilmaz Arin. Use of diatomite as partial replacement for
Portland cement in cement mortars. Constr Build Mater 2009;23(1):284–8.
[18] Wanjale Santosh D, Jog JP. Effect of modified layered silicates and
compatibilizer on properties of PMP/clay nanocomposites. J Appl Polym Sci
2003;90:3233–8.
[19] Sun Tingting, Hu Chunxiu, Hu Qingjuan, Zhang Mingyan, Zhang Xiaohong.
Study on preparation and properties of organic montmorillonite modified
epoxy composites. Insulating Materials 2005;38(2):1–3.
[20] Qin Huaili, Su Quansheng, Zhang Shimin. Thermal stability and flammability of
polyamide 66/montmorillonite nanocomposites. Polymer 2003;85:7533–8.
[21] Ouyang Chunfa, Wang Shifeng, Zhang Yong, Zhang Yinxi. Thermo-rheological
properties and storage stability of SEBS/kaolinite clay compound modified
asphalts. Eur Polym J 2006;42(2):446–57.
[22] Ouyang Chunfa, Wang Shifeng, Zhang Yong, Zhang Yinxi. Preparation and
properties of styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymer/kaolinite clay compound
and asphalt modified with the compound. Polym Degrad Stab 2005;
87(2):309–17.
[23] Vlachovicova Zora, Wekumbura Chaminda, Stastna Jiri, Zanzotto Ludo. Creep
characteristics of asphalt modified by radial styrene–butadiene–styrene
copolymer. Constr Build Mater 2007;21(3):567–77.
[24] Shashidhar N, Shenoy A. On using micromechanical models to describe
dynamic mechanical behavior of asphalt mastics. Mech Mater 2002;
34(10):657–69.