The effect of hard segment content of polyurethane on the performances of polyurethane porous mixture

Abstract

To study the effects of the hard segment content of Polyurethane (PU) on the performances of polyurethane porous mixture (PPM), three PUs with different hard segment contents are selected in this paper. Firstly, the properties including hardness, elongation, e-modulus of PU were tested. Secondly, the cantabro test was used for analyzing the effect of hard segment content on the cantabro losses of the open-graded friction course 16 (OGFC16), OGFC13 and OGFC10 at the different immersed times and temperatures. Thirdly, the freeze–thaw splitting test, rutting test, friction coefficient test and three-point bending test were used for studying the road performances of OGFC13. The results of tests show that the elongation decreases with the increasing of hard segment content. The water and temperature have significant effects on the cantabro losses of PPM. The cantabro loss of PPM increases with the increasing of the immersed time and temperature. And the cantabro losses of PPM are higher than that of asphalt mixture (AM) overall. In terms of the road performance, the hard segment content of PU has a significant effect on the cantabro losses of PPM, has no effect on the tensile strength ratio (TSR). Therefore, the hard segment content of PU has a significant effect on the water stability of PPM in some cases. Besides, the hard segment content has a significant effect the dynamic stability, flexural strength and flexural tensile strain of PPM, has an effect on anti-skid ability in some cases. In the whole, the PU with smaller hard segment content is beneficial to has better road performances. Finally, the PU with the hard segment content from 41% to 51% is recommended.

Keywords

• Polyurethane
• Hard segment content
• Open-graded friction course
• Water stability
• Cantabro loss
• Road performance