A bit of encyclopedic knowledge
Bitumen is a product of the petroleum industry, it is a solid or tar-like mixture of hydrocarbons with a variety of derivatives. The composition of bitumen includes 70-87% of carbon, about 15% of hydrogen, about 10% of oxygen, and about 1.5% of sulfur.
This substance is absolutely insoluble in water, but partially or completely soluble in chloroform, benzene, carbon disulfide and other organic solvents. The density of bitumen is from 0.9 to 1.5 g / cm³.The color of this substance is black or dark brown.
Bitumens possess rather characteristic physical properties. These include weather resistance, hydrophobicity, solubility in most organic solvents, softening during gradual heating, adhesion, plasticity, viscosity, etc.
Bitumen viscosity is one of its most important characteristics. It depends on temperature fluctuations: as the temperature rises, this index decreases, when it decreases, it increases, and when the temperature regime is below zero, the material becomes brittle enough.
Among other things, another indicator of the quality of bitumen is its specific gravity. The specific gravity of bitumen by all standards should be not less than 1 g / cm3 at t 25 ˚С.
Application of oil building materials
In addition to the physical representatives of this class of materials, there are a number of chemical properties that are expressed in their resistance to aggressive media, as well as to alkali, etc. All these properties led to the use of bitumen in the production of waterproofing, anti-corrosion and roofing materials, lubricating oils and fuel oil.
In addition, this substance is widely used in road and hydro-technical construction. Good combination of this substance with various polymers and rubber has broadened the scope of its application and led to its use in almost all spheres of construction.
Bitumen, thanks to its physico-chemical and other properties, as well as its excellent characteristics, remains one of the most demanded substances in the building materials market. Therefore, it is not surprising that its production increases every year. And the addition of various polymers in its composition allows to stabilize its shortcomings and emphasize advantages.
Bitumen variety
bitumen classification is carried out according to several criteria:
- by origin :
- artificial bitumen( oil) is obtained during oil refining;
- natural are formed by the natural polymerization of oil, they are very rare in pure form, they are much more often present in sedimentary rocks;
- according to the type of extracted raw material :
- bitumen coal is produced by dissolving some types of coal products with organic solvents, and in the further processing of such varieties, resins and wax are produced, which are used in the production of glue mixtures and paintwork materials;
- peat - are separated from peat by the use of various organic solvents;
- petroleum, in turn, is divided into residual, oxidized and compounded;
- for the intended use and the scope of application :
- bitumen road is used in the production of road mastics, all kinds of bitumen emulsions, as well as asphalt mixtures, the volumetric weight of road bitumen is approximately equal to 1100 kg / m³;
- roofing bitumen is impregnated and coverslips;the first are used for waterproofing coatings and other structures, and the latter are used in the production of roofing materials( roofing materials, roofing tiles, etc.);
- bitumen insulating found their use in waterproofing materials( glass, waterproofing, mastic, etc.).