Toward the long-term aging influence and novel reaction kinetics models of bitumen

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the long-term aging influence on chemo-rheological properties and develop novel consecutive models for the long-term aging reaction kinetics of bitumen. The results revealed that the aging index was significantly dependent on the types of selected parameters. The Zero-order model was suitable to describe the long-term aging reaction kinetics of bitumen based on the oxygen-containing functional groups with the reaction rate constants in 0.7–3.3*10−4 (mol L−1·h−1). In the SARA-based consecutive reaction model, the most optimum kinetics model for aromatic fraction was the Third-order reaction model and the corresponding reaction kinetics constant (k 1) was 0.02 (mol·L−1)−2(h)−1. The Zero-order model could well fit the generation kinetics of asphaltene molecules with the reaction rate constant k 2 of 3.85*10−4 mol·(L·h)−1. Further, the transformation reaction from the resin to asphaltene molecules was the control step of the whole consecutive reaction model. In this study, when one-unit resin fraction was generated, the consumption amount of aromatic fraction was about 2.82 units. Meanwhile, when one-unit resin fraction was consumed, only 0.58-unit asphaltene could be generated. The developed reaction kinetics models could be beneficial to predict the functional groups distribution and SARA fractions in aged bitumen with different aging degrees.