J. Liu et al.
Construction and Building Materials 305 (2021) 124784
Table 8
Results of analysis of variance.
Pen Spt G*/sinδat 60℃
Model Quadratic Quadratic Quadratic
R2 0.9975 0.9950 0.9956
Adj. R2 0.9942 0.9886 0.9899
F-value 308.31 154.71 174.99
P-value <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001
C. V. % 2.99 1.44 8.29
Lock-of-Fit P-value 0.9987 0.9356 0.8282
Std. Dev. 3.01 0.66 0.96
and castor oil is still being mixed in, which makes the non-recoverable
creep compliance of asphalt begin to increase. Under the high content
(20%) of polyurethane, the amount of bio-oil is not enough to
completely consume the incorporated polyurethane, so the chemical
reaction goes on, the rutting index of asphalt increases, and the incor­
poration of bio-oil makes the polyurethane amount smaller, causing the
chemical reaction slower, so the rate of increase of the rutting index of
asphalt becomes slower and slower. The content of polyurethane has a
significant effect on the non-recoverable creep compliance of asphalt,
and the incorporation of polyurethane can greatly reduce the non-
recoverable creep compliance of asphalt.
The non-recoverable creep compliance of asphalt under a high-stress
level (3.2 kPa) is different from that under a low-stress level (0.1 kPa).
When vegetable oil content was low, the non-recoverable creep
compliance of asphalt increased continuously with the castor oil content
increase. The reaction between castor oil and polyurethane was inade­
quate, and castor oil alone could modify asphalt. When vegetable oil
content is 9%, the non-recoverable creep compliance of asphalt first
decreased and then increased as the castor oil content increase, with a
maximum decrease of 9.4%. This is consistent with the non-recoverable
creep compliance of asphalt under low-stress levels. When the content of
castor oil and vegetable oil is constant, as the amounts of polyurethane
raises, the non-recoverable creep compliance of asphalt decreases
significantly, which indicates that polyurethane can obviously decrease
the non-recoverable creep compliance of asphalt, reduce the non-
recoverable of asphalt strain, and enhance the high-temperature per­
formance of asphalt. When the content of polyurethane and castor oil is
constant, with the vegetable oil content increasing, the non-recoverable
creep compliance of asphalt increases.
The reason may be that the modification of vegetable oil is mainly to
improve castor oil and polyurethane. The compatibility of the asphalt
makes the response more stable. Under high-stress levels, the non-
recoverable creep compliance of asphalt is more sensitive to the
amount of vegetable oil. At this time, the non-recoverable creep
compliance of asphalt is mainly affected by the amount of vegetable oil.
Therefore, the raising in the vegetable oil amount increases the non-
recoverable creep compliance of asphalt.
3.2.3. Bending beam rheometer (BBR) test
After the BBR test is performed on the neat asphalt, the asphalt creep
rate and stiffness modulus obtained by the bending rheometer are used.
The stiffness modulus can reflect the deformation resistance of asphalt.
At low temperatures, asphalt becomes hard and crisp because of its
temperature sensitivity. Under the action of temperature cycling,
deformation is in need to prevent breakage, that is, asphalt with lower
stiffness modulus is less likely to break. The creep rate reflects the
deformability of asphalt under stress. For temperature stress, asphalt can
deform to offset the energy without cracking, that is, asphalt with a
higher creep rate is less likely to be damaged at low temperatures.
Through the BBR test, the stiffness modulus and creep rate of the 60 s in
the asphalt creep process are obtained. The experimental results are
fitted through regression analysis to obtain the second-order polynomial
equation model. The results are shown in Eqs. (8) and (9).
m S Jnr0.1 Jnr3.2
Quadratic Quadratic Quadratic Quadratic
0.9593 0.9937 0.9974 0.9995
0.9070 0.9856 0.9941 0.9989
18.33 122.36 302.12 1548.11
0.0005 <0.0001 <0.0001 <0.0001
2.28 6.99 6.04 3.36
0.4012 0.2102 0.8519 0.9852
0.0088 9.01 0.24 0.25
S = 91.68 - 21.39X1 - 72.79X2 + 58.05X3 + 15.32X1 X2
(8)
- 13.10X1 X3 + 8.75X2 X3 - 1.30X12 + 38.10X22 + 42.17X32
m = 0.39 + 0.016X1 + 0.026X2 - 0.024X3 - 0.00875X1 X2
(9)
+ 0.00825X1 X3 - 0.0005X2 X3 - 0.00135X12 - 0.0026X22 - 0.0036X32
Fig. 6 is a three-dimensional response surface graph related to the
stiffness modulus and the creep rate based on the test data. When the
content of polyurethane and vegetable oil is constant, as the content of
castor oil increases, the stiffness modulus reduces significantly, and
when the polyurethane and castor oil content is constant, with the
vegetable oil content increasing, the stiffness modulus of the asphalt
reduces significantly. This indicates that both vegetable oil and castor oil
can reduce the stiffness modulus of the asphalt in the castor oil-based
polyurethane modified asphalt. When the content of castor oil and
vegetable oil is constant, with the polyurethane content increasing, the
stiffness modulus of asphalt increases significantly, which indicates that
polyurethane or the product of polyurethane and castor oil can raise the
stiffness modulus of asphalt.
When the content of polyurethane and vegetable oil is constant, the
creep flexibility of asphalt increases significantly with the castor oil
content increasing. When the amount of polyurethane and castor oil is
constant, as the content of vegetable oil increases, the creep compliance
increases significantly. This indicates that at low temperatures, the
raising in the bio-oil amount results in decrease in the stiffness modulus
of castor oil-based polyurethane modified asphalt, and at the same time
result in increase in its creep compliance. The reason may be that bio-oil
contains more light components, and its addition reduces the stiffness of
the asphalt and enhances the stress relaxation ability, thereby reducing
the stress accumulation during the cooling process and improving the
thermal crack resistance of the asphalt. When the content of castor oil
and vegetable oil is fixed, as the amounts of polyurethane raises, the
creep compliance of asphalt decreases. At low temperatures, an increase
in polyurethane content increases the stiffness modulus of castor oil-
based polyurethane modified asphalt and decreases its creep compli­
ance. It demonstrates that polyurethane or the chemical product of
polyurethane and castor oil is a kind of hard material, which is relatively
rigid under low-temperature conditions and is not easily deformed
under force.
In summary, castor oil and vegetable oil can improve the low-
temperature performance of asphalt, and polyurethane or poly­
urethane and castor oil products in castor oil-based polyurethane
modified asphalt sacrifices the low-temperature performance of asphalt.
But under the combined action of castor oil, vegetable oil, and poly­
urethane, the low-temperature performance of asphalt is better.
3.3. Analysis of variance results
To ensure the significance of the established three-dimensional
response surface and the polynomial fitting equation, the analysis of
variance was used for testing. The results are presented in Table 8.
The p-value is usually used to test the significance of a variable. The
smaller the p-value, the more significant the corresponding variable. It