Bitumen has been used for thousands of years and its importance as a valued engineering material continues to increase. The interest in the modification of bitumen using polymers, whether virgin, scrap or polymer blends, is intense. The last two decades, in particular, have seen an increase in the number of academic groups studying polymer-modified bitumen and correspondingly the peer-reviewed literature in the field has increased. Initially, studies on polymer modified bitumen (PMB) focused more on engineering and empirical measurements, e.g. ageing and softening point. However, in recent years a plethora of techniques have been employed in the study of the effect of the addition of polymers on a range of bitumen properties, polymer—bitumen morphology and polymer—bitumen interactions.

Polymer modified bitumen (PMB) is one of the specially designed and engineered bitumen grades that are used in making pavement, roads for heavy duty traffic and home roofing solutions to withstand extreme weather conditions. PMB is a normal bitumen with the added polymer, which gives it extra strength, high cohesiveness and resistance to fatigue, stripping and deformations, making it a favorable material for infrastructure.

Pavements designed and constructed for heavy-duty traffic and extreme weather conditions require specially designed engineered Bitumen Grades. By changing the characteristics of normal bitumen with the addition of a polymer, either they are of elastomeric nature or elastomeric, we succeed to obtain bitumen that allows the mixture to be more cohesive, with much more strength and significant higher resistance to parameters like fatigue and permanent deformations for road pavements.

PMB Applications

It is used for Wearing course & Binder course like Semi dense Bituminous Concrete (SDBC), Dense Bituminous Macadam (DBM) and Bituminous Concrete (BC)or Asphalt Concrete(AC).

PMB Advantages

• Greater Rigidity
• Better resistance to permanent deformation
• Higher Resistance to spreading cracks
• Greater water resistance
• Much higher durability
• Enhances life of periodical maintenance and overlays by about 1.5 times as compared to conventional Bitumen.
• Lower susceptibility to temperature variations.
• Higher resistance to deformation wear and tear.
• Low glass transition temperature which gives excellent performance properties of pavement at low temperatures.
• Stiffer blend reduces rutting and stability at high temperatures.
• Enhances Dimensional stability and strength of pavement.
• Improves abrasion resistance of pavementImproves abrasion resistance of pavement.
• Improves Fatigue resistance.
• Reduces Oxidation and aging resistance.
• Reduces structural thickness of pavement.
• Provides better adhesion between different aggregates.
• Delay cracking and reflective cracking.

Types of polymer modified bitumen