Outdoor aging of road asphalt and SBS modified asphalt

The process of performance degradation of road asphalt (RA) is regarded as aging. At present, better understanding of the thermal-oxidative aging of asphalt is achieved and the corresponding method to evaluate this process is developed; meanwhile, photo-oxidative aging (aging in an atmospheric environment, which is referred to as “outdoor aging” in this paper) of asphalt remains at the initial stages of scientific exploration. The outdoor natural ultraviolet (UV) aging of RA and SBS modified asphalt (SBSMA) are investigated in this study. The experimental results show that the basic performances of RA and SBSMA present similar change tendencies. The softening point increased, while the penetration and ductility decreased as the outdoor aging time passed by, and the 5°C ductility (ductility measured at 5°C) of SBSMA decreased very quickly. The group components of RA and SBSMA also change during UV aging. The content of asphaltene rose and that of aromatics and saturates decreased, while the content of resins changed insignificantly. Moreover, the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) graphs show that the content of sulfoxide and carbonyl groups in RA and SBSMA increased significantly during the outdoor aging process.