A Rapid Method for the Determination of SBS Content Based on the Principle of Orthogonal Testing

Abstract

The performance of Styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) modified asphalt is closely related to the content of SBS modifier. In the production process of modified asphalt, a certain amount of additive such as sulfur and rubber oil may be added to reduce the segregation and promote the swelling of the polymer, but the effect of these additives on determining SBS content in asphalt is not yet clear. This paper presents the calibration curves of SBS content based on rutting factor and creep slope and points out its defects according to the temperature scanning test and the bending beam rheometer test. Subsequently, using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for rapid determination of polymer content in SBS modified asphalt based on orthogonal test and then the effects of additives such as asphalt type, SBS content, rubber oil and sulfur on the accuracy of polymer content determination by FTIR were investigated. Moreover, in the orthogonal tests of adding sulfur and rubber oil, the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was firstly used to analyze the additives influence on the test accuracy of FITR. Results indicated that the influencing degree of different additives is different. The influence of sulfur on the determination accuracy is greater than that of rubber oil. Therefore, the rapid determination method needs further improvement.