Bituminous Materials

The Concrete and Asphalt Laboratory possesses modern testing equipment operated by an experienced team of technicians. Our team can help test your materials and answer your R&D questions.

In particular, we offer the following tests:

 

Binder

  • Conventional binder tests

  • Bitumen rheology using Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR)

  • Low temperature properties using Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) and Fracture Toughness Test

  • Simulation of aging using Rolling Thin Film Oven Test (RTFOT) and Pressure Ageing Vessel (PAV)

  • Advanced characterization using Atomic Force Microscope with Nanoscale Infrared Spectroscopy (AFM-FTIR), Gel Permeation-Chromatography (GPC) and Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)

 

/documents/55996/14345118/New+2020+Dynamic+Shear+Rheometer/c2a74142-e519-4bca-bb00-a4c3e7037b28?t=1599569279273
Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) for advanced characterization of bitumen

Asphalt mixture / Pavement

  • Conventional mixture tests

  • Dynamic tests (fatigue, stiffness, rutting, gyratory compaction)

  • Monotonic loading tests (interlayer shear test, indirect tensile test, semi-circular bend test)

  • Traffic load simulation in an environmental chamber using Model Mobile Load Simulator (MMLS3)

/documents/55996/14345118/New+2020+Mobile+Load+Simulator/009d25b3-391f-4b74-a9ff-46cc0a81064d?t=1599569307357
Model Mobile Load Simulator (MMLS3) for determining the long-term pavement performance
/documents/55996/14345118/New+2020+Asphalt+Testing+Lab/ba140f04-324c-4979-ba00-5425d9af7249?t=1599568374567
Asphalt testing laboratory with multiple environmental chambers

Flexible Plug Expansion Joints For Road Bridges
(according to draft EAD120011-01-0107 and 120093-00-0107 /ETAG 032-3)

  • Movement capacity test under slow occurring movements at various temperatures with DJMS (Dynamic Joint Movement Simulator)

  • Water tightness test

  • Overrolling test (resistance to fatigue) with MMLS3

In case of questions, please get in touch with Dr. Martin Hugener: martin.hugener@empa.ch, +41 58 765 44 87

/documents/55996/14345118/New+2020+Bridge+expansion/6039ea18-3c2f-49f1-9326-91134042d21c?t=1599569243270
Environmental chamber for testing bridge expansion joints