Low-Temperature Characteristic Evaluations of Base and Hybrid Asphalt Binders

Abstract

Abstract Polymerized asphalt is broadly being applied for producing durable asphalt pavement all over the performance characteristics of asphalt binders, especially their low-temperature behaviors. This research study used two base binders and four hybrid binders (including styrene-butadiene-styrene and crumb rubber) to explore the lowest potential temperatures of resisting the cracks. The results indicated that the time-temperature principle needed to be properly evaluated to determine the 60th second as the exact loading duration to finalize the thermal cracking temperatures for hybrid asphalt binders. In addition, ΔTc, defined as the numerical difference between the critical low temperature determined from stiffness criteria (300 MPa) and the m value (0.300), which was used to characterize the crack potential of an aged binder, should be adjusted according to the characteristic demands of hybrid binders. Moreover, the conducted correlations between stiffness values at the low temperatures and phase angles at high temperatures were feasible to explore the viscous-elastic characteristics of base binders and hybrid binders.