Rheological, Mechanical, Microscopic, and Chemical Characterization of Asphalt Binders at Extended Aging Levels
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 8
Abstract
This study aims to connect asphalt binder mechanical properties to their dynamic microscopic morphology and chemical indices to provide a more thorough and fundamental picture of aging and cracking phenomena. Unmodified and modified asphalt binders were aged to five levels for a comprehensive representation of the asphalt binder service life. Rheological indices used covered linear viscoelastic cracking indicators and nonlinear parameters including fatigue life obtained by the linear amplitude sweep test. A recently validated asphalt binder cracking test, the poker chip test, was used to provide new insight into the mechanical performance of asphalt binders as they stretch into the nonlinear regime and experience cavitation damage. Rheological and mechanical properties were compared to static surface topography from atomic force microscopy (AFM) and time-sensitive asphalt binder microstructure based on electron beam loading using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). Results indicated that the parameters based on linear viscoelastic analysis and fatigue life derived from the linear amplitude sweep (LAS) test are not adequate to delineate the evolution of asphalt binder behavior with aging among different asphalt binders, due to poor ranking based on known phenomena. However, it was confirmed that the poker chip test was sensitive to longer aging cycles and could capture the total degradation of the asphalt binder’s ductility for both modified and unmodified asphalt binders. The consistency between ESEM and AFM was ensured by observing static surface structures; however, quantification of the fibril formation in ESEM images was the most critical morphological observation when it came poker chip results, because both sharing similar deformation mechanisms. Chemical characterization using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was also able to capture asphalt binder aging well, and could be best related to the strength of the asphalt binder. Overall, it was established that the surface microstructure has some relationship to mechanical properties, but not a definitive one, and that using ESEM as an energy absorption indicator was most similar to the comprehensive results from mechanical and chemical testing.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Smart Transportation Infrastructure Initiative (STII) at the University of Illinois for partially funding this study. The authors also wish to thank Cate Wallace of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois for training and advice on using the ESEM and Kathy Walsh of the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois for training and advice on using the AFM.
Author contributions: Experimental testing: Y. Lu; and literature search, interpretation, analysis, and writing: Y. Lu, B. Asadi, and R. Hajj.
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Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 8 • August 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jul 27, 2022
Accepted: Jan 9, 2023
Published online: May 30, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 30, 2023
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