Sulphur-Asphalt Pavement Technology: a Review of Progress Thomas W
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42 Transportation Research Record 741 USE OF STONE SCREENINGS AS struction have been discussed here. The overall ROADBASE AGGREGATE subject is very broad. Other applications of stone screenings include bedding materials, fillers, granulars stone screenings are used extensively in roadbase and for drain fields, fills, mixtures for de-icing, patches, subbase mixes and are used in combination with coarse slurry seals, surface treatment, and overlays. aggregate. This type of use reduces the cost of the combined product because the screenings do not have REFERENCES to be separated and reblended. The Bureau of Mines' statistics (.!) show that during 1977 more than 340 1. A. H. Reed. Stone in 1977. In Mineral Industry million Mg (375 million tons) of roadstone and roadbase Surveys. Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of aggregates were used in the United states. The rea the Interior, annual prelim. ed., 1977. sons for that are basically two: (a) these combinations 2. E. A. McLean. A Comparative Analysis of are lower-cost construction materials, and (b) the ma Secondary Crusher Types. Presented at the 53rd terials are exceptionally good and suitable for base Annual Convention, National Crushed Stone As construction without stabilizing additives. sociation, Washington, DC, 1970. Screenings have been used in roadbase construction 3. F. A. Shergold. The Grading of Crusher Fines. ever since the first broken rock was produced by man. Roads and Road Construction, Vol. 35, No. 410, Due to modern technology available for mechanized Feb. 1957, pp. 36-40. construction, stone screenings for road construction 4. M. R. Thompson. Subgrade Stability. TRB, are being used to an even greater extent. The past, Transportation Research Record 705, 1979, pp. present, and future role of unbound aggregates (a 32-41. portion of which are stone screenings) in road construc 5. I. V. Kalcheff. .;Iechanical Stabilization of Weak tion are summed up in the proceedings QQ) from a Subgrade Soils with Crushed stone Products. national conference in 1974. The subject of load National Crushed Stone Association, Washington, deformation characteristics, other fundamental proper DC, 1971. ties, design procedures, production control systems, 6. M. Herrin and W. H. Goetz. Effect of Aggregate and quality assurance are extensively discussed in the Shape on Stability of Bituminous Mixes. HRB, proceedings. Proc., Vol. 33, 1954, pp. 293-308. NCSA staif, with the assistance of NCSA committee 7. J. M. Griffith and B. F. Kallas. Influence of Fine members, has prepared a number of manuals on the Aggregates on Asphaltic Concrete Paving Mixtures. use of crushed stone products (including stone screen HRB, Proc., Vol. 37, 1958, pp. 219-254. ings) for specific purposes, such as construction of 8. .F. P. Nichols, Jr., and I. V. Kalcheff. Asphalt parking areas, streets, low-volume roads, highways, Aggregate Mix Evaluation from Repetitive Com shoulders, and airports. Engineers and designers pression and Indirect Tensile Splitting Tests. should consider the use of low-cost crushed stone National Crushed stone Association, Washington, materials for construction. These materials are DC, 1979. available today, and the forecast for crushed stone 9. I. V. Kalcheff. Portland Cement Concrete with by the year 2000 is on the order of 27 billion Mg (30 Stone Sand: Special Engineering Report. National billion tons). Stone screenings account for 12 per Crushed stone Association, Washington, DC, 1977. cent of that estimated total; therefore, more than 3 10. Utilization of Graded Aggregate Base Materials in billion Mg (5 billion tons) of stone screenings will be Flexible Pavements. Proc., National Crushed used between now and then. Stone Association, National Sand and Gravel Asso ciation, and National Slag Association, Oak Brook, OTHER USES OF STONE SCREENINGS IL, 1974. Not all the uses of stone screenings for highway con- Sulphur-Asphalt Pavement Technology: A Review of Progress Thomas W. Kennedy and Ralph Haas This paper briefly summarizes the current status of sulphur-asphalt pave The accumulation of surplus sulphur, the need for im ment technology with emphasis on sulphur-extended asphalts. The various proved paving mixtures, and the dwindling supply of processes that are currently available are discussed and compared, and the asphalt and its rapidly increasing cost have provided the various field trials are described. Performance observations and engineering properties are also considered. Finally, the future use, applications, and incentive to develop new uses for sulphur for the paving problems of sulphur-asphalt are reviewed. Based on experience, the use of industry. One of the largest such applications is the use sulphur-asphalt mixtures can be expected to increase during the next few of sulphur in sulphur-asphalt mixtures. years. This is especially true of sulphur-i!xtended asphalt mixtures, which Two basic approaches have been used. Either sulphur have greater applicability and conserve asphalt and produce a correspond can be added to the mixture or it can replace a por- ing reduction in cost. tion of the asphalt [sulphur-extended asphalt (SEA)]. Both processes have definite applications, and each has Transportation Research Record 741 43 Table 1. Method for using sulphur in asphalt mixtures. Basic Example Example Field Some Limitations, Actual Method Sources Features Applications and Possible Liquid sulphur addi Shell Canada Ltd. Use of marginal materials Richmond, British Special equipment (i.e., insulated tion to hot sand (i.e ., unstable sands); no Columbia, 1970 trucks); high quantities o[ sul asphalt mixes compaction req uirements Tilsonburg, Ontario, phur ; questionable economics, 1972 except [or special situations Maclean, Saskatchewan, 1974 Sulphur, LA, 1977 Societe Nationale Potential economy; ex Perimeter road o[ plant at Storage (i.e ., costs, formation des Petroles tension of asphalt supply; Lacq in Western France, of H2S, need for inert cover d 'Aquitaine use of conventional paving 1973 gas); need [or additives to equipment Lu[kln, TX, 197 5 maintain storage stability; extra operators at plant; ele mental sulphur vapor at paving site Preblending of liquid Gulf Canada Ltd. Potential economy; ex Alberta, 1974, 1977 Extra operators at plant; ele sulphur and asphalt tension of asphalt supply; Ontario, 1975, 1977, 1978, mental sulphur vapor at paving to produce SEA use of conventional paving 1979 site binder equipment; production of Michigan, 1977, 1979 binder, on site, on de Holland, 1978 mand; no additives re Louisiana, 1978 quired Florida, 1979 Minnesota, 1979 SUDIC Potential economy; ex Alberta, 1975, 1977 Extra operators at plant; ele tension of asphalt sup British Columbia, 1979 mental sulphur vapor at paving ply; use of conventional site paving equipment; pro duction o[ binder, on site, on demand Pugmill blending of U.S. Bureau Potential economy; ex Nevada, 1977 Elemental sulphur vapor at liquid s ulphur and of Mines tension of asphalt sup paving site; uniformity of asphalt to produce ply; use of conventional dispersion; aggregate coating SEA binder paving equipment; no additives required been used successfully in various field construction process, Gulf Canada process, Sulphur Development In projects. stitute of Canada (SUDIC) (Pronk) process for Thermal The purpose of this paper is to review these pro Asphalt, and cesses and the field trials that have been conducted to 3. Pugmill blending of sulphur and asphalt to pro date and to illustrate some of the properties of paving duce SEA-U.S. Bureau of Mines process. mixtures that have sulphur addition. The basic approach in the first method is to add hot AVAILABLE PROCESSES liquid elemental sulphur, essentially as a filler, to a hot sand-asphalt mix during a second mixing cycle, A number of projects have incorporated elemental sul which occurs after the asphalt has been mixed with the phur in asphalt mixtures. The general objectives were aggregate. In the second method, the basic approach to use sulphur and to obtain improved mechanical prop is to disperse hot liquid elemental sulphur in asphalt to erties of the mixtures. Current efforts also have these create an SEA binder, which is then mixed with aggre objectives; they are concerned with achieving improved gate in the same way that asphalt alone is used in conven economy and extending the available supplies of asphalt. tional mixtures. The third method also attempts to The first application of sulphur in the paving industry create an SEA binder by the separate addition of the com was on the Ohio Department of Highways experimental road ponents and pugmi ll blending of sulphur and asphalt, in Hocking County in Ohio in 1935 (1). At about the same rather than by preblending. Table 1 summarizes infor time, a paving-brick filler formulation named Sulmor mation related to these processes. was developed by Litehiser and Schofield (2). It con sisted of asphalt and Thiokol-plasticized sulphur. Shell Process Another nearly concurrent effort was initiated by Bacon and Bencowitz in 1936 (3) and patented in 1939 The Shell Thermopave process, developed in the 1960s, (R. F. Bacon and I. BencowitZ, U.S. Patent 2 182 837, involved the first substantial use of sulphur in asphalt 1939). It included vigorous stirring of as much as (Shell International Research Maatschaapij , Ge1· . Offen. 50 percent of elemental sulphur in asphalt at 149°C 2 149 676). The basic intent was to use large amounts (300°F) and is known as t he Texas Gulf process. Paving of surplus sulphur by incorporating it in sand-asphalt mixtures that contained this binder were tested exten mixtures of low stability (i.e., mixtures that contain sively and a small experimental road was constructed. poorly graded, unstable sands to produce mixtures of The major methods currently available for using high stability). sulphur in asphalt mixtures, not including such paving The process, which has been described in several materials as Sulphlex, which is currently being investi sources (4-10), essentially consists of the following two gated by the Southwest Research Institute, have been consecutivemixing cycles: developed in the mid-1960s to early 1970s.