Development of a practical field method for the determination of elastic recovery of modified binders.

Abstract

Elastic recovery of a binder is one of the properties which is used to control the quality of the binder in road construction. The laboratory equipment used to determine elastic recovery is generally too expensive and bulky for standard usage in field laboratories. The field elastic recovery test (FERT), based on the standard laboratory ductilometer test was designed to overcome this problem. In this paper, the design and development of FERT, its repeatability and reproducibility, its sensitivity to changes in testing conditions and finally its correlation with the standard laboratory ductilometer test are addressed. Results of tests conducted using the FERT were found to have acceptable repeatability and reproducibility, low sensitivity to changes in testing conditions and a one-to-one relationship with the results of elastic recovery tests conducted using the standard laboratory ductilometer.