Introduction:

Dealing with asphalt in many ways and relying on its properties to use in
daily life it's important to deal with good manufacture asphalt. So tests performed
on asphalt to be sure that good asphalt is used, one of these tests is ductility of
asphalt that is done to check asphalt ability to work conveniently.
Define other tests to use it as a limit not to be crossed while working with asphalt
such as flash and fire point.

Definitions
Ductility : The distance at which asphalt will elongate before breaking when
two ends of briquette specimen are pulled apart.

Flash point: The temperature at which the asphalt will flash when a flame is
passed above it.

Fire point : The temperature at which the asphalt will ignite.

Objectives:
o1To be familiar with ductility of bituminous materials and flash and fire
points.
o2To determine the ductility, flash point and fire point of asphalt.
o3To compare results with specifications.

Procedure:
For ductility test:
1. Sufficiently flood asphalt cement is poured into a mold until it is more
than full level.
2. The sample is left at room temperature for 30-40min to cool down.
3. It is placed in a water bath for a period of time of 30min at 25c.
4. The excess asphalt cement is removed by a spatula or a straight-edged
knife to make the surface of the sample just level.
5. The mold with the sample is kept at 25c in a water bath for 85-95min.
6. the plate of the mold is removed and the two ends
7. Salt should be added to the water in order to ensure that the specimen is
fully covered under water.
8. Record the distance that specimen had elongated before it cut or
separated

For flash & fire point test:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Heat the asphalt for a degree below 150*C

Pour the asphalt in Cleveland cup to the mark
Put the cup with thermometer in the asphalt on a heater
Record the temperature at which the asphalt begin to flash
After 5 sec temperature will be fire point

Results
In ductility test: group I & II get 73 cm and 96 cm (respectively), and for group
III & IV get 37.5 cm and 75 cm so the result is 70.4cm. And in the flash and fire
points test: group I & II its C & for group III & IV its 2
(More details of the results are in table .1)

Group No.

Ductility

Flash point

fire point

73

318

321

96

318

321

Average

70.38

318

321.5

Discussion:
Results show that approved measures are close which mean that test was succeeded
and the asphalt is notgood to use in field since its below 100 cm which is the
ductility limit for using asphalt while asphalt below this limit cannot be used.
Salt should be added to water in the testing machine to avoid contact of sample
while testing with the bottom of the testing machine.
It was noticed while testing that samples may not having a gradual increase in
diameter from the center of the sample to its end, that there was a thick parts in the
line of sample elongation that may affect the results.
Working in flash and fire points tests needs to be very cautious since we deal with
hot asphalt and flame.

Results showed that flash and fire points are high compared with room
temperature.
errors during the test.
Errors such as:
o Personal errors
o Machine not calibrated
o Not adding salt causing the specimen to hit the bottom.

Conclusion:
Dealing with asphalt and flame should be done with caution.
Samples of ductility were notgood to use.
Flame, Fire & flash points & ductility are clearly defined.
Reaching the fire point means after this point the asphalt will became just
like any fill material (useless).
o The flash and fire points help in determining the type of asphalt to be used.
o Each zone has its own kind of asphalt properties due to different in
temperature.
o
o
o
o

References:
o The Asphalt institute Mix design methods for Asphalt Concrete and
other hot mix types Manual series no.2(MS-2)
o The Asphalt institute A brief introduction to Asphalt and some of its
uses Manual series no.5(MS-5)
o ASTM , "Ductility of asphalt" section 4 , Vol 04.03 , USA , 1990 , pp
o AASHTO T 51, T 48