Bitumen has been used for thousands of years and its importance as a valued engineering material continues to increase. The interest in the modification of bitumen using polymers, whether virgin, scrap or polymer blends, is intense. The last two decades, in particular, have seen an increase in the number of academic groups studying polymer-modified bitumen and correspondingly the peer-reviewed literature in the field has increased. Initially, studies on polymer modified bitumen focused more on engineering and empirical measurements, e.g. ageing and softening point. However, in recent years a plethora of techniques have been employed in the study of the effect of the addition of polymers on a range of bitumen properties, polymer—bitumen morphology and polymer—bitumen interactions.

Polymer modified bitumen (PMB) is one of the specially designed and engineered bitumen grades that are used in making pavement, roads for heavy duty traffic and home roofing solutions to withstand extreme weather conditions. PMB is a normal bitumen with the added polymer, which gives it extra strength, high cohesiveness and resistance to fatigue, stripping and deformations, making it a favorable material for infrastructure.

Pavements designed and constructed for heavy-duty traffic and extreme weather conditions require specially designed engineered Bitumen Grades. By changing the characteristics of normal bitumen with the addition of a polymer, either they are of elastomeric nature or elastomeric, we succeed to obtain bitumen that allows the mixture to be more cohesive, with much more strength and significant higher resistance to parameters like fatigue and permanent deformations for road pavements.

When a polymer is added to regular bitumen, it becomes more elastomeric, which provides it with additional elasticity. The polymer that is added is styrene butadiene styrene (SBS), which acts as a binder modification agent. The primary objective of SBS polymer modified bitumen is to provide extra life to pavement, roads and construction designs. Some of the qualities exhibited by PMB are:

• Higher rigidity

• Increased resistance to deformation

• Increased resistance to cracks and stripping

• Better water resistance properties

• High durability

Advantage of using polymer modified bitumen:

• stronger road with increased marshall stability value and greater Rigidity

• better resistant towards rainwater and water stagnation.

• no stripping and no potholes

• better resistance to permanent deformationreduction in pores in aggregate and hence less rutting and raveling

• much higher durability