APPLICATION OF VERMICULITE IN BITUMINUM COMPOSITIONS AND MASTICS FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

The article shows the possibility of applying vermiculite in bitumen compositions and mastics for road construction. The characteristics of the vermiculite mineralhas been given, as well as of the prod-uct of its processing – expanded vermiculite (EV). The research on extracting and testing of bitumen-vermiculite compositions using petroleum road bitumen BND 90/130 and BND 60/90 and expanded vermiculite sand with a fraction of 0.6–1.0 mm have been conducted. The optimal “bitumen – ex-panded vermiculite” ratios in the compositions have been determined. Bituminous-vermiculite mastics (BVM) have been developed and tested in road conditions, their effectiveness in the repair of asphalt concrete pavements under real operating conditions has been shown. The fields of application of bitu-minous-vermiculite mastics include: repairing cracks and potholes in asphalt concrete pavement, seal-ing expansion joints, and waterproofing engineering communications and bridge structures.