Investigating the influence of carbon nanotube on the performance of asphalt binder

The purpose of this study aims at investigating the impact of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT’s) on the properties of low viscosity grade asphalt binder. Asphalt binder with viscosity grade-10 is selected as the control binder and later it is modified with different percentages of MWCNT’s (0.5–2.5%). Penetration, softening point, ductility and rotational viscosity test were employed for evaluating the effect of MWCNT’s on basic physical properties of modified asphalt binder. Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) is used for evaluating the rheological properties of the base and modified bitumen, for both aged and unaged bitumen. Based on the conventional and basic rheological tests, it was seen that the addition of MWCNT’s improved the high-temperature performance of modified bitumen. Multiple Stress Creep and Recovery (MSCR) test results revealed that the addition of MWCNT’s improved the creep and recovery of modified binders for both stress intensities (0.1 kPa and 3.2 kPa) which confirms that the modified binder is more rut resistant. Moreover, it was observed that there was a significant improvement in the aging resistance of the asphalt binder due to addition of MWCNTs. However low temperature performance of MWCNTs was not encouraging. Also, MWCNTs addition to asphalt binder was found to be stable under high-temperature storage condition. Overall, there is a significant amount of improvement using MWCNTs in the base asphalt binder.