With this document, we aim to provide a brief, yet comprehensive overview of standardized, as well as advanced methods to analyze bituminous materials. For each method, the general principles are laid out and the specific application of bitumen is explained. References to publications related to the methods are also included. To make the document more useful for practitioners, we provide a short summary of potential applications and sample questions that can be answered by a method, its advantages, disadvantages, costs, and limitations.

This document, which we call Chemo-Mechanical Toolbox, intends to provide short pieces of information for the application of methods. It is not intended to be a textbook on the fundamental background of analytical principles, or a review of findings made by applying these methods in the past. We want to provide a reference document that supports users finding the right method for different questions on bitumen’s chemistry, mechanics, microstructure, and aging – and how all these phenomena are linked.