Mastering bitumen for better roads and innovative applications (Coursera)

Mastering bitumen for better roads and innovative applications (Coursera)

During the four coming weeks, best experts in bitumen will bring you their knowledge and experience to build a strong understanding of today’s realities and new perspectives on the future of bitumen. Total is the European leader on bitumen markets. Innovation has always been the key to sustainability and durability in the products they develop. Their main objective here is to share technical knowledge and experience to insure bitumen are being used in the most effective and efficient ways for their different applications in road works.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Ecole des Ponts, France oldest engineering school, remains very much in the present, as it has always been, in training engineers in order to meet the needs of our society and citizens in key areas such as transport housing and urban services, but also in fields like energy, environment, climate sciences, land-use planning and sustainable development.
Nineteen world recognized experts on bitumen are contributing to this MOOC.
The idea is to provide the broadest prism on this topic area with speakers coming from research, industry and end users.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Bitumen market, generalities, the manufacture of bitumen, transport, uses of bitumen, main developments and alternatives
Origins, history, definition, terminology | market per geographical areas, figures of consumption, main producers, capacities of production, ranking, main flows between areas | global development of motorised transport - cars, airplane - was one of the single most development of 20-21st centuries | global development of buidings, roofing and other applications of bitumen | difference between bitumen, cement and tar coal. Advantages and drawback of each | different ways of transport of bitumen and present the supply chain diagram and restrictions. ADR Regulation | sampling, handling and safety principles. Hazard from handling hot bitumen is thermal burns.

WEEK 2
Constitution, structure and characterization of bitumen - specifications-rheology
Schematic constitution and structure of bitumen, relationship between structure and rheology | Performance tests | Bitumen 3 states | Penetration test EN 1426 & Softening Point EN 142 | viscosity measurement EN 12596, EN 12595, Explanation of breaking point Fraass measurement EN 12593 | testing Binder after RTFOT, after RTFOT and PAV | Euopean specifications and process of revision | Viscosity based standards (ASTM D3381 | Deformation and flow. Elasticity, plasticity, visoc-elasticity. Newtonian, Non-Newtonian behaviour. Stress-strain response, shear modulus and phase angle. | Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) and Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) | Superpave specifications.

WEEK 3
Modifications of bitumen and applications (roads, roofing,…)
Modifications using polymers. Performance of PmB. Elastic recovery test. | of types of modifications of bitumen: CRMB, warm mix asphalt, temperature reduction | Bitumen emulsions, their components, manufacture, storage, handling, properties, classification, uses | surface treatments | design of pavements and types of aggregates | fundamental tests, the simulative tests (fatigue test, rutting test, giratory compactor,…) | interest of full scale testing of asphalt mix: example of IFSTTAR carousel | Hot mix plants, transport, laying and compaction of asphalt mix | physical characteristics and industrial applications for sealing.

WEEK 4
Health, Safety, Environment & Quality concerns regarding bitumen, and examples of research & innovation actions
Dangers and risks involved with road-building bitumens | Dangers and risks involved with industrial bitumens. | Innovation in the frame of safety with bitumen | Research and Innovation applied for recycling of asphalt pavement, of the use of waste asphalt pavement containing bitumen and not tar, for manufacturing new product.| Research and Innovation applied for bio bitumen Algoroute program and other origins of bitumen | Research and Innovation applied for environmental issues and life cycle inventory (LCI | Key areas for the Research and Innovation applied for bitumen new tests methods | Road of the future:: 5th generation road.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Platform Thinking: designing a Platform (Coursera) Coursera
Politecnico di Milano

Platform Thinking: designing a Platform (Coursera)

Platforms changed the way we live and we do business. This module of the “Platform Thinking” series aims to help innovators in designing and building platforms. At first sight, it may seem that platforms "simply" connect different kinds of users, as Airbnb links travelers and hosts or as Uber links drivers and riders. Well, this is true: platforms link different kinds of users. Nevertheless, this is just the enabling factor to have a platform, definitely not enough to describe the wide range of activities they actually do.

Sep 21st 2026
4 Weeks
Introduction to Enterprise Growth and Innovation (Coursera) Coursera
Northeastern University

Introduction to Enterprise Growth and Innovation (Coursera)

This course is best suited for individuals currently in the healthcare sector, as a provider, payer, or administrator. Individuals pursuing a career change to the healthcare sector may also be interested in this course. The course explores the challenges and processes for harnessing technological innovation for new-business development, with special focus on digital healthcare transformation.

Sep 21st 2026
4 Weeks
Introduction to solar cells (Coursera) Coursera
Technical University of Denmark - DTU

Introduction to solar cells (Coursera)

How do solar cells work, why do we need, and how can we measure their efficiency? These are just some of the questions Introduction to solar cells tackles. Whether you are looking for general insight in this green technology or your ambition is to pursue a career in solar, “Introduction to Solar Cells” is an excellent starting point. The course is a tour through the fundamental disciplines including solar cell history, why we need solar energy, how solar cells produce power, and how they work. During the course we cover mono- and multi-crystalline solar cells, thin film solar cells, and new emerging technologies.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law - The Structure of Government (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine

Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law - The Structure of Government (Coursera)

This course will highlight the construction and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution through the centuries. You'll learn the history behind the Constitution, cases that formed important precedent, and how changes in interpretation have been dependent on shifts in cultural and political climate as well as the composition of the Supreme Court.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Competencias para la empleabilidad (Coursera) Coursera
Universidad Austral

Competencias para la empleabilidad (Coursera)

Este curso está dirigido a académicos, empresarios y estudiantes de grado, y su objetivo es mejorar el nivel de empleabilidad de los jóvenes graduados en América Latina, ya que a través de él podrán adquirir competencias que hoy día exigen las empresas de este mundo globalizado. Esto se logrará a través de tres módulos: Empleabilidad, Innovación y Emprendimiento, con los que podrán adquirir las competencias requeridas.

Sep 21st 2026
3 Weeks
Tinkering Fundamentals: Motion and Mechanisms (Coursera) Coursera
Exploratorium

Tinkering Fundamentals: Motion and Mechanisms (Coursera)

The Tinkering Fundamentals course will offer educators and enthusiasts an opportunity to develop a practice of tinkering and making. We see tinkering as a serious endeavor—one that is generalizable across content and especially good at interweaving disciplines in a way that leads to complex projects and individualized learning opportunities.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Energy management for real estate. Methods and digital tools (Coursera) Coursera
Politecnico di Milano

Energy management for real estate. Methods and digital tools (Coursera)

The figure of the Energy Manager (EM), introduced in the United States in the early 1970s, during the first oil crisis, brought to light the need to get more work out of less energy. In Italy, this figure was officially introduced by Law 308/82, but had its first strong impulse thanks to Law 10/91, aimed at implementing the National Energy Plan on the rational use of energy, energy saving and the development of renewable energy sources. More in detail, an Energy Manager is a person whose task is to manage what concerns energy within a company, a public body, or more generally a structure, verifying the energy consumption, optimising it, and promoting interventions aimed at energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources.

Sep 21st 2026
4 Weeks
A Scientific Approach to Innovation Management (Coursera) Coursera
Università Bocconi

A Scientific Approach to Innovation Management (Coursera)

How can innovators understand if their idea is worth developing and pursuing? In this course, we lay out a systematic process to make strategic decisions about innovative product or services that will help entrepreneurs, managers and innovators to avoid common pitfalls. We teach students to assess the feasibility of an innovative idea through problem-framing techniques and rigorous data analysis labelled ‘a scientific approach’.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Mechanics: Motion, Forces, Energy and Gravity, from Particles to Planets (Coursera) Coursera
UNSW Sydney - University of New South Wales

Mechanics: Motion, Forces, Energy and Gravity, from Particles to Planets (Coursera)

Most of the phenomena in the world around you are, at the fundamental level, based on physics, and much of physics is based on mechanics. Mechanics begins by quantifying motion, and then explaining it in terms of forces, energy and momentum. This allows us to analyse the operation of many familiar phenomena around us, but also the mechanics of planets, stars and galaxies.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change (Coursera) Coursera
University of Chicago

Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change (Coursera)

This class describes the science of global warming and the forecast for humans’ impact on Earth’s climate. Intended for an audience without much scientific background but a healthy sense of curiosity, the class brings together insights and perspectives from physics, chemistry, biology, earth and atmospheric sciences, and even some economics—all based on a foundation of simple mathematics (algebra).

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Physical Chemistry (Coursera) Coursera
University of Manchester

Introduction to Physical Chemistry (Coursera)

Chemical reactions underpin the production of pretty much everything in our modern world. But, what is the driving force behind reactions? Why do some reactions occur over geological time scales whilst others are so fast that we need femtosecond-pulsed lasers to study them? Ultimately, what is going on at the atomic level? Discover the answers to such fundamental questions and more on this course in introductory physical chemistry.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks