Determining Specific Gravity of Bitumen

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This test is done to determine the specific gravity of semi-solid bitumen road tars, creosote
and anthracene oil as per IS: 1202 – 1978. The principle is that it is the ratio of mass of a
given volume of bitumen to the mass of an equal volume of water, both taken at a
recorded/specified temperature.

The apparatus needed to determine specific gravity of bitumen is

i) Specific gravity bottles of 50ml capacity

ii) Water bath

iii) Bath thermometer – Range 0 to 44oC, Graduation 0.2oC

Take the sample (half the volume of the specific gravity bottles).

Procedure to determine specific gravity of bitumen

i) Clean, dry and weigh the specific gravity bottle along with the stopper (Weight ‘A’).

ii) Fill the specific gravity bottle with freshly boiled distilled water and insert the stopper
firmly. Keep it in the water bath having a temperature of 27.0 + 1oC for not less than half an
hour and weigh it (Weight ‘B’).

iii) Weigh the specific gravity bottle about half-filled with the material (Weight ‘C’).

iv) Weigh the specific gravity bottle about half-filled with the material and the other half with
distilled water (Weight ‘D’).

v) Weigh the specific gravity bottle completely filled with the material (Weight ‘E’).

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REPORTING OF RESULTS

i) Specific gravity (Solids and semi-solids) = (C-A )/[ ( B-A) – (D-C)]

ii) Specific gravity (Liquids) = (E-A)/(B-A)

The average of the two results should be reported.

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Kanwarjot Singh
Kanwarjot Singh is the founder of Civil Engineering Portal, a leading civil engineering website
which has been awarded as the best online publication by CIDC. He did his BE civil from
Thapar University, Patiala and has been working on this website with his team of Civil
Engineers.

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