Experimental and Simulation Study of Phase Microstructure and Storage Stability of Asphalt Modified with Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 12
Abstract
The evolution of morphology at the microscale of polymer-modified asphalt under thermal conditions is of interest due to its great influence on the macroperformance of asphalt. In this paper, a phase-field method is presented to model the evolution of microstructure and storage stability of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA)-modified asphalt. The influence of vinyl acetate (VA) on phase-separation behavior and storage stability of EVA-modified asphalt was evaluated by the combination of simulation and experiment. The diffusion, interaction, and swelling between polymer and asphalt matrix were analyzed. The results indicated that the phase field in two dimensions describes the evolution of morphology observed from fluorescence microscopy for EVA-modified asphalt under isothermal annealing conditions. Diffusion and the interface between EVA molecules and asphalt mainly control the phase-separation behavior. Higher VA content causes less diffusion and promotes interaction and swelling between EVA and asphalt matrix. The storage stability predicted by the coupled Navier-Stokes phase-field model (NSPFM) indicated that phase separation becomes slower with the increase of VA, which is affected by the difference in density between polymer and asphalt. The stability results predicted by NSPFM were validated with fluorescence microscopy and tube test results.
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Data Availability Statement
Some data, models, or code (such as the phase-field model) generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 12 • December 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 9, 2019
Accepted: Jun 4, 2019
Published online: Sep 18, 2019
Published in print: Dec 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Feb 18, 2020
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