Price and purchase of Asphalt in Pavements
In terms of its behavior, Trinidad Lake Asphalt, commonly referred to as TLA, is one of the oldest sources of asphalt products used in road pavements for years.
testing of asphalt pavements
This description is for a natural asphalt lake (Asphalt Lake) in southwest Trinidad.
The lake covers more than 40 hectares, and the asphalt in the lake has surfaced and can be collected. The material is semi-solid and an emulsion of water and bituminous compounds.
Mined Lake Trinidad bitumen must be partially processed to obtain a suitable material as gravel and other contaminants adhere to the product within the lake.
The reason for this is that TLA boils out of the ground and mixes with dirt and gravel. In addition to external impurities, Trinidad Lake asphalt contains a high percentage of internal impurities, scientifically known as ash content, that cannot be removed by refining.
Behavior of Lake Trinidad asphalt
Asphalt from Lake Trinidad has an interesting rheological behavior. It reacts well with any refinery bitumen material considering that its bitumen content is primarily maltene.
In addition, TLA melts easily at relatively low temperatures, making it easy to use in any hot asphalt mix.
The reaction of Trinidad Lake asphalt with common asphalt binders is robust and considering the same source for both (crude oil) the binder is emerging as a new material with excellent pavement properties.
Typical Physical Properties
Trinidad Lake Asphalt has the below general properties which is also compared to a similar resource of Lake Asphalt located in Iran:
Advantage of Using TLA
Applying Trinidad Lake asphalt can enhance the bituminous pavement quality in several aspects. In mixing TLA with common pavement grades of penetration bitumen such as 40/50, 60/70 and 80/100, the complex modulus and phase angle of binders were separately increased and decreased with the rise in TLA content, while aging phenomenon was reduced and RUTTING resistance was increased.
design of asphalt pavement
Another study shows Trinidad Lake Asphalt makes it easy to generate segregation phenomenon in binders. Also, the range of Viscosity in the asphalt and binder remains stable when applying TLA (Mixture Stability Effect).
When applying, the more TLA applied, the larger increase will happen in large molecules, small molecules and Polydispersity Index.
Mixing TLA with common binders also increases anti-aging effects by increasing ketone and sulfoxide molecules. In addition to above, some more advantages of using Trinidad Lake Asphalt are:
The water-resistant characteristics of mastic asphalt are due to high concentrations of bitumen and other additives that help bind aggregate particles together. Trinidad Lake Asphalt (TLA) is the most widely used additive for mastic asphalt.
Gilsonite is also employed as a bitumen additive and has been shown to provide superior performance characteristics when compared to TLA and other common additives.
In 2017, ASPHALTA Prüf- und Forschungslaboratorium, an independent research facility located in Berlin, Germany, conducted comprehensive testing to determine how the physical and chemical properties of Gilsonite performed compared to TLA.
Trinidad Lake Asphalt and Gilsonite are both naturally occurring materials that have been used to enhance the characteristics of asphalt pavement for more than 100 years.
Trinidad Lake Asphalt is mined from the Pitch Lake at La Brea in southwest Trinidad. Gilsonite is mined in the Uintah basin in Utah of the United States.
asphalt pavement layers
A look at the physical and chemical properties of TLA and Gilsonite reveals substantial differences that play a role in performance as bitumen modifiers. Gilsonite has much lower mineral contamination and sulfur content than TLA.
Increasing shear modulus and viscosity as a viscous material, the properties of asphalt will change as various forces are applied to it and as temperatures change. A higher shear modulus is always desirable, but the viscosity of a material will also be affected by temperature.
In the ASPHALTA study, the asphalt samples were tested with a dynamic shear rheometer to determine how the viscosity would change across a wide temperature range.
The most interesting results for the 30/45 bitumen were at 60°C, where the binder modified with 5% Gilsonite showed a viscosity more than double that of the binder modified with 24.4% TLA, using only one-fifth the amount of additive. Softening point and needle penetration tests:
Resistance to rutting
The softening points of the various mixtures were tested with the ring and ball method under three conditions to simulate mastic asphalt at different stages of the life-cycle: in unloaded (fresh) condition; after a rolling thin film oven test (RTFOT) to simulate moderate aging; and after a pressure aging vessel (PAV) test to approximate long-term aging.
Needle penetration tests were conducted under the same conditions. These tests showed that both the 30/45 bitumen modified with 5% Gilsonite and the bitumen modified with 6% Gilsonite increased the softening point and decreased the penetration over the standard formulation of 30/45 bitumen modified with 24.4% TLA.
The higher the softening point of an asphalt mixture, the more it will resist deformation and rutting which occur at higher temperatures.
The lower the needle penetration number, the less the likelihood of moisture penetrating the surface of the asphalt.
Increased Pavement Durability
Layer Equivalency
Improved Resistance to High-Temperature Deformations
Improved pavement load carrying
Improved whole-life pavement costs
A light colored, safer, surface and improved ability to display pigments effectively
Enhanced Skid Resistance Characteristics
Improved low temperature cracking characteristics
Trinidad Lake Asphalt Applications
TLA is used wherever a high quality and strong pavement is required and different type of payments such as Asphaltic Concrete, Mastic Asphalt and SMAs can include TLA.
Most common applications of Trinidad Lake Asphalt are for Bridges, Airports, Heavy Traffic Highways, Racetracks and Container Yards.
Trinidad Lake Asphalt Packaging
Trinidad Lake asphalt is available in Jumbo Bags, Drums and Kraft Paper Capsules. Considering the Semi-Liquid nature of the material, smaller packaging from Trinidad Lake Asphalt suppliers have not been successful.
comparing To Tla, Iran lake asphalt has a higher softening point allowing it to be powdered before packing resulting in several type of packaging including 25kg Paper/PP/Meltable bags and Jumbo bags.
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