Asphalt Incorporation with Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) Copolymer and Natural Rubber (NR) Thermoplastic Vulcanizates (TPVs): Effects of TPV Gel Content on Physical and Rheological Properties

Abstract

Plastic waste has been incorporated with asphalt to improve the physical properties of asphalt and alleviate the increasing trend of plastic waste being introduced into the environment. However, plastic waste comes in different types such as thermoplastic or thermoset, which results in varied properties of polymer modified asphalt (PMA). In this work, four thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) were prepared using different peroxide concentrations to produce four formulations of gel content (with varying extent of crosslinked part) in order to imitate the variation of plastic waste. All four TPVs were then mixed with asphalt at 5 wt% thus producing four formulations of PMA, which went through physical, rheological, and storage stability assessments. PMA with higher gel content possessed lower penetration and higher softening temperature, indicating physically harder appearance of PMA. Superpave parameters remained unchanged among different gel content PMA at temperatures of 64, 70, and 76 °C. PMA with any level of gel content had lower Brookfield viscosity than PMA without gel content at a temperature of 135 °C. Higher gel content resulted in shorter storage stability measured with greater different softening temperatures between top and bottom layers of PMA after 5 days of 163 °C storage. This study shows that asphalt with thermoset plastic waste is harder and easier to pave, thus making the non-recycling thermoset plastic waste more useful and friendly to the environment.

Waste Polymer and Lubricating Oil Used as Asphalt Rheological Modifiers

“…We can see in these images that the role of the added polymer is clear in changing the microstructure of the asphalt, as is its effect on the rheological and morphological properties of the polymer-centered asphalt. Its contents are carbon, sulfur, and oxygen [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. The AS-3 patch sample shows that it had better physical properties than both the other patches and the native sample, and this may be attributed to the high surface area of PW powder, ranging from 35–38 nm.…”

Investigation on using graphite filler for 3D printing of flexible electrically conductive polymer by extrusion‐based additive manufacturing

“…Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) has come up as an effective alternate for flexible part printing. 29,30 High flexibility of EVA components and its easy commercial availability makes the material an adequate choice. Researchers have concentrated on creating flexible polymers utilizing several AM methods.…”

“…Flexible polymers are the new class of electronic materials which has gained attention since its development. Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) has come up as an effective alternate for flexible part printing 29,30 . High flexibility of EVA components and its easy commercial availability makes the material an adequate choice.…”

The Evaluation of Physical and Mechanical Properties of Synthetic Polymer Modified Hot and Warm Mix Asphalt

“…Several products have been discovered to bring varying degrees of impact to the properties of the bitumen, such as maleic anhydride, thermoplastic vulcanizates, and polyoctenamer. The use of these agents has been observed to increase elastic properties, storage stability, resistance to permanent deformation and low-temperature cracking, thermal stability, and lower viscosity [28]- [30].…”