Effect of Aging on the Low Temperature Performance of Asphalt Binder

Abstract

During the service of asphalt pavement, the aging makes asphalt binder become brittle, gradually lose flexibility and adhesion. All these result in the low-temperature properties of asphalt pavement to be poor. This paper conducts the rolling thin film oven test (RTFOT) and pressure aging vessel (PAV) test on base asphalt and rubber-modified asphalt respectively. The bending beam rheometer (BBR) test was conducted on original asphalts, rolling thin film oven test (RTFOT) residuals and RTFOT + pressure aging vessel (PAV) residuals of base asphalt and rubber-modified asphalt respectively. Results indicate that the low-temperature properties of all aged asphalts were declined. The attenuation of low-temperature properties of RTFOT + PAV residuals is larger than that of the RTFOT residuals. The attenuation of different types of asphalt is different. From the overall trend, effect of aging on the low-temperature properties of asphalt binder reduced as the test temperature reduction. The rubber-modified asphalt has superior low-temperature performance than that of base asphalt, and its low-temperature performance decreases more slowly than the base asphalt.