Effects of Aging on the Mechanical Characteristics of

Bituminous Binders in PAC

A. A. A. Molenaar1; E. T. Hagos2; and M. F. C. van de Ven3

Abstract: Wearing courses of porous asphalt concrete 共PAC兲 are widely used in The Netherlands for noise reducing purposes. Because
these mixtures have a very high void content 共⬎20%兲, they are sensitive for damaging effects of climate and traffic. Especially, aging is
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a major concern because it makes the mixture brittle and prone to raveling. In order to be able to do meaningful tests and analyses based
on laboratory produced specimens, it is important to mimic field aging as well as possible. This paper describes the results of an
investigation in which the effects of well known short-term and long-term laboratory aging procedures on the rheological characteristics
and chemical composition of binders, are compared with the rheological characteristics and chemical composition of field aged binders.
The results obtained on field aged binders are also compared with the results of laboratory aging protocols in which a special weather-
ometer was used. The results clearly show that none of the laboratory procedures is capable of simulating long-term field aging. At best
2 years field aging could be simulated. Furthermore, the study showed that the way bitumens are aged in the laboratory affects the
chemical composition of the binder. The paper also discusses the effect of aging on the mechanical characteristics of bituminous binders
in porous asphalt concrete. It is shown that due to aging, the binder will start to behave brittle at temperatures above 0 ° C. Furthermore,
it is shown that aging increases the tensile strength of the binder and the bituminous mastic 共mixture of bitumen and filler兲. The strain at
break however decreases as a result of aging. Fatigue testing showed that aging initially increases the fatigue resistance of the binder.
However long-term aging occurring in the field after a period of more than 7 years results in a significant decrease of the fatigue
resistance. Although not discussed in detail, the results show that aging reduces the stress relaxation capacity of the binder. This will
negatively influence the behavior of the binder in case temperature stresses occur together with traffic induced stresses. Also, the healing
capacity will be negatively influenced by aging.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲MT.1943-5533.0000021
CE Database subject headings: Binders, material; Aging; Rheology; Fatigue; Asphalts.
Author keywords: Binders; Aging; Rheology; Fatigue.

Introduction the bituminous binder is very much exposed to the effects of

In The Netherlands, about 20% of the inhabitants are hindered by
traffic noise. This is the reason why noise reducing measures are
on the agenda of both politicians and highway authorities. Noise
levels can be reduced in several ways but it appears that the
greatest and most cost effective reductions can be achieved by
using porous surface layers. For that reason, porous asphalt con-
crete 共PAC兲 is used on 70% of the Dutch highways.
Because of its very high void content, a minimum void content
of 20% is required, PAC is vulnerable for the combined damaging
effect of traffic and environment. Because of its open structure,
1
Professor, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Delft Univ. of Technology,
Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands 共corresponding author兲.
E-mail: a.a.a.molenaar@tudelft.nl
2
Formerly, Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Delft Univ. of
Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands. E-mail:
m.f.c.vandeven@tudelft.nl
3
Associate Professor, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Delft Univ. of
Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands. E-mail:
m.f.c.vandeven@tudelft.nl
Note. This manuscript was submitted on May 20, 2009; approved on
August 19, 2009; published online on February 6, 2010. Discussion pe-
riod open until January 1, 2011; separate discussions must be submitted
for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Materials in
Civil Engineering, Vol. 22, No. 8, August 1, 2010. ©ASCE, ISSN 0899-
1561/2010/8-779–787/$25.00.
oxygen, temperature, ultraviolet 共UV兲 radiation and moisture, and
rapid aging of the bituminous binder is observed in practice.
Traffic and environmental effects cause the PAC wearing
course to ravel 共Fig. 1兲. Raveling increases the pavement rough-
ness resulting in higher noise levels and loose aggregate particles
may lead to windshield damage resulting in dangerous driving
conditions. Raveling determines the pavement life and mainte-
nance of PAC. From maintenance records kept by the Road and
Hydraulics Engineering Division of the Ministry of Transport
共Bol 2003兲 it was concluded that the average lifetime of PAC is
around 11 years. A large amount of variation in the pavement life
is however observed. Maintenance might be needed as soon as 4
years after construction but also lifetimes of around 16 years are
observed. Because of the costs involved, the Ministry of Trans-
port initiated a large research program with the objective to un-
derstand the mechanisms responsible for raveling. Based on this
understanding further development on designing, production, and
laying of PAC can be made.
Part of that research project was the investigation into the ef-
fects of aging on the performance of PAC 共Hagos 2007兲. This
study was commissioned to the Delft University of Technology.
The research program involved analyzing the effects of aging on
the rheological, strength, and fatigue characteristics of bituminous
mortars used in PAC. Part of the study was related to the devel-
opment of laboratory aging procedures that are able to mimic the
aging that occurs in practice. The selection of the most appropri-

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 Fig. 1. Raveling of PAC

ate procedure had to be based not only on the rheological and

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strength characteristics but also on the chemical characteristics of

Table 1. Gradation of PAC the bituminous mortar. The investigations done with respect to
Sieve/aggregate size Percentage ret. Cumm. percentage finding the right aging procedure are described in this paper.
共mm兲 by weight. ret. The organization of the paper is as follows. First of all a short
C 22.4–16.0 1.7 1.7 description of PAC is given. This is followed by an overview of
C 16.0–11.2 21.0 22.7
the research plan and the aging protocols used. Then the results of
the various tests performed on specimens aged in the laboratory
C 11.2–8.0 33.5 56.2
and field specimens are presented and discussed. Finally some
C 8.0–5.6 21.7 77.9
conclusions will be presented.
C 5.6–2.0 7.1 85.0
2.0–0.063 10.9 95.9
⬍0.063 共filler: Wigro 60K兲 4.1 100.0
Porous Asphalt Concrete
Bitumen 70/100 4.5% by wt.
PAC is made of 0–16 mm aggregates, bitumen with a 70/100
penetration and a limestone filler to which 25% of hydrated lime
is added for durability purposes. Table 1 shows a typical PAC
gradation.
Fig. 2 gives a comparison between the composition of dense
asphalt concrete wearing courses and PAC wearing courses. In
this figure Va = volume content of aggregates; Vb = volume content
of bitumen; and Vv = void content and the VMA indicates the
voids in the aggregate skeleton. PAC layers have a thickness of
approximately 50 mm.

Research Plan

A research plan was developed allowing field aging of PAC mix-

tures to be compared with laboratory aged bituminous binders and
Fig. 2. Composition of dense asphalt concrete and PAC

Fig. 3. Schematic outline of the research plan

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J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 2010.22:779-787.

 laboratory aged PAC mixtures. The plan is schematically outlined
in Fig. 3.
In order to determine the amount of aging that occurs in the
field, cores were taken from the slow lane 共SL兲 and emergency
lane 共EL兲 of highway sections having PAC wearing courses
which were 0, 1, 3, 7, and 12 years old. When taking the cores,
attention was paid to two other variables being, amount of traffic
carried by the pavement and the condition of the PAC wearing
courses. Poor conditions were only obtained for the 7- and 12-
year-old sections. For details on these sections the reader is re-
ferred to Hagos 共2007兲.
Because of its very open structure, a PAC layer will be sub-
jected to aging over its entire thickness. Nevertheless there is a
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difference in aging exposure between the top part of the layer and
the bottom part. Furthermore it has quite often been observed that
the top part of the PAC layer contains less binder than the bottom
part. This is a result of drainage of the binder due to gravitational
forces especially during the laying and compaction period when
the mixture is still hot. Because of these two reasons it was de-
cided to analyze the top part of the cores separately from the
bottom part.
The laboratory aging was done on the bitumen as well as the
bituminous mastic being a mixture of bitumen and filler. The
aging of these samples was done by means of rolling thin film
oven test 共RTFOT兲 to simulate short-term aging and by means of
RTFOT+ rotating cylinder aging test 共RCAT兲 to simulate long-
term aging.
Furthermore PAC samples taken from slabs that were prepared
in the laboratory were aged using a weathering machine. Fig. 3
shows that three different protocols were applied to age these
samples. Protocols 1 and 2 were applied on cores taken from the
slabs produced in the laboratory, while Protocol 3 was applied on
beams taken from those slabs.
Recovery of the Binder, Aging Tests, and
Procedures
Binder Recovery
Recovery of the binder from the field cores and laboratory pro-
duced PAC mixtures was performed according to the European
standard EN 12697-3 and NEN3971, which entails the following:
1. Extraction of the binder from the mixture: separation of the
aggregates, sand, and filler from the binder using dichlo-
romethane 共methylene chloride, CH2Cl2兲 solvent.
a. Binder extraction by dissolving the asphalt mix in cold
solvent 共dichloromethane, CH2Cl2兲; and
b. Separation of mineral matter from the binder solution
共centrifuge extraction method兲.
2. Recovery of the binder from the solution 共EN 12697-3兲: re-
covery of the bitumen from the solvent using the rotary
evaporation method.
Fig. 4. RCAT device for accelerated aging of bituminous binder
the temperature used was 163° C. In the RCAT test 500 g of
bitumen is used which is exposed to a temperature of 163° C for
a period of 235 min.
Long-Term Aging
Long-term aging refers to the aging of bitumen during the service
period of an asphalt pavement. The laboratory accelerated aging
method used to simulate long-term aging of bitumen was the
RCAT90 共draft NEN-EN 15323兲 after the binder has been ex-
posed to short-term aging. In this test 500 g of bitumen is used
which is exposed to a temperature of 90° C for a period of 185 h
共Verhasselt and Choquet 1997; Verhasselt 2002兲.
Aging Using a Weatherometer
As was mentioned before, PAC slabs were prepared in the labo-
ratory from which samples were taken which were subjected to
different aging protocols using a weatherometer. Fig. 5 shows the
weatherometer and some beams that were cut from the slabs.
Three aging protocols were used; they are shown in Table 2.
The aging protocols were developed after a careful analysis of
climatic data available in The Netherlands and after extensive
discussions with researchers dealing with the durability of paints.
For details, the reader is referred to Hagos 共2007兲.
One should realize that each protocol is a compromise be-
tween what should preferably be done and what can reasonably
be done given time and budget constraints. To simulate aging, it is
preferable to use aging cycles because aging will not or only
hardly take place during winter time and the influence of tempera-
ture is much lower during the night. Furthermore the influence of
UV light is more or less negligible during the night. All this
means that aging is more or less a cyclic process in which “rest

Short-Term Aging
Conventional aging methods were adopted for short-term aging of
bitumen in this research. They were:
1. RTFOT 共EN 12607-1兲: rotating thin film oven test.
2. RCAT163 共draft NEN-EN 15323兲: RCAT. Fig. 4 is a picture
of the RCAT test.
In the RTFOT, eight bottles each containing 35 g of bitumen
were placed in the oven. The duration of the test is 75 min while Fig. 5. Weatherometer and PAC beams

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 Table 2. Aging Protocols Applied on Marshall Tablets and Beams Using the Weatherometer
Marshall specimens Temperature aging 共aging protocol 1, AP1兲 Temperature+ UV 共aging protocol 2, AP2兲
Test conditions:
Aging temperature 60° C 60° C
Time of aging 1,000 h 1,000 h
UV exposure 共300–400 nm兲 — 60 W / m2
Beams from PA slab Temperature+ UV light+ humidity 共aging protocol 3, AP3兲
Number of beams 共300⫻ 100 mm兲 5
Average voids content 共%兲 23.1

Test conditions:
Aging temperature 60° C UV exposure 共300–400 nm兲 60 W / m2
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Time of aging 1,000 h Humidity 共RH兲 70%

periods” can be recognized. Cyclic aging might be more detri-
mental than continuous aging and might therefore be preferred in
order to simulate reality as good as possible. This would imply
however that the aging protocol would take much more time to be
performed which is not attractive from a practical point of view.
For reasons of time, continuous aging is of course to be preferred.
Also the selection of the aging temperature is a point of de-
bate. A temperature of 60° C will not be present the entire time
but selecting a high temperature will shorten the aging process.
On the other hand, a temperature higher than 60° C can hardly be
applied for the aging of PAC samples because drainage of the
bituminous mortar due to gravitation might be much more than
what happens in the field. Comparison of the properties of the
bitumen recovered from the laboratory produced and aged speci-
mens with the properties of the bitumen recovered from field
samples should indicate which aging protocol is the most realistic
one.
Test Results
Different types of tests were performed to determine the effect of
aging on the characteristics of bitumen. These tests were:
1. Tests on the chemical composition using gel permeation
chromatography 共GPC兲 and attenuated total refraction Fou-
rier transform infrared 共ATR/FTIR兲 spectroscopy;
2. Rheological tests using empirical methods;
3. Rheological tests using the dynamic shear rheometer 共DSR兲;
4. Direct tension tests on the bituminous binder and mastic; and
5. Fatigue tests on the bituminous binder and mastic.
Next to that well known tests such as penetration and softening
point were carried out but these will not be discussed in this
paper.
Chemical Composition
First of all an investigation was done of the effects of aging on the
chemical composition. This was believed to be of importance
because the chemical composition could have a big influence on
the rheological mechanical and adhesion characteristics of the
bitumen. As mentioned before ATR/FTIR and GPC tests were
performed to obtain information on this matter. In this paper only
some results of the ATR/FTIR analyses will be discussed.
Fig. 6 shows the infrared 共IR兲 spectrum of laboratory aged
bitumens 共RCAT185兲, 12-year-old field specimen 共UZ兲, and bind-
ers recovered from weatherometer aging 共AP3兲. As it can be ob-

Fig. 6. IR spectra of laboratory aged and field aged bitumens recovered from the upper part of the cores

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J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 2010.22:779-787.

 served in Fig. 6, the materials from the 12-year-old pavement and
the 1,000-h weatherometer aging have comparable peaks at the
S v O band and seem to have relatively higher peaks at the
C v O band. The long-term aged 共LTA兲 binder 共conventional
long-term aging using RCAT兲 does not seem to have significant
effect on the C v O band at 1 , 700 cm−1 and has the lowest peak
in the S v O band at 1 , 030 cm−1 next to the virgin bitumen. The
recovered bitumen from the laboratory mixture aging test
共AP2 : temperature+ UV aging兲 has the highest peak at the sulfox-
ide peak 共S v O兲 while showing a small increment at the ketones
peak 共C v O兲. This indicates that the effect of temperature and
UV light on the aging process seem to be reflected in the devel-
opment of the sulfoxide peak. The combined effect of the UV
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light and temperature has a greater effect on binder aging than the
protocol with only temperature. The effect of the UV light on the
aging process can also be seen at the C u C band 共1 , 600 cm−1兲.
The combination of the three aging effects, i.e., temperature, UV
light, and humidity 关relative humidity 共RH兲兴, is resulting in the
development of the two major oxidation products 共C v O and
S v O兲, which is consistent with the characteristic of the field
aged binders. To recap, the combined effect of temperature, UV
exposure, and humidity/moisture seem to result in the formation
of both the ketones and sulfoxides similar to the field aging
whereas the conventional aging results in S v O formation with
minimum effect on C v O development. This supports the asser-
tion that the conventional binder aging method does not simulate
field aging.
The kinetic approach was used to fit the development of the
oxidation products 共C v O and S v O兲 of the EL and SL field
binders. This approach was used by Verhasselt and Choquet
共1997兲 to predict the aging rate of field and laboratory binders
based on the development of the asphaltene content with aging
time. The approach is briefly described hereafter.
The kinetic approach is a method used to predict the rate of
change of binder properties due to accelerated aging in the labo-
ratory or the aging of the binder in asphalt pavements. With this
approach, developments in binder characteristics such as penetra-
tion, ring and ball temperature 共TRB兲, viscosity, and asphaltenes
content can be described effectively.
A one-dimensional diffusion model resulted in best fits for
reaction indicators such as asphaltene content 共AS兲, and softening
point 共TRB兲 for tests performed below 100° C. Eq. 共1兲 is the cor-
responding equation 共Verhasselt and Choquet 1997; Verhasselt
2002兲
冋 册 冉 冊 n n
St − S0 dSt
␣n = = =k⫻t
S f − S0 dS⬁
where ␣ = the extent of reaction; S0 =values of the signal or indi-
cator S at times t = 0; St = values of the signal or indicator S at
times t = t; S f = values of the signal or indicator S at the end of the
reaction; k = reaction constant; and n = aging coefficient, n = 2 for
tests performed below 100° C, and n ⬇ 3 / 2 for tests performed
above 100° C.
Eq. 共1兲 can be reduced to a more practical equation 关Eq. 共2兲兴
St = S0 + 共Kr ⫻ tr兲
where K = overall reaction constant and r = 1 / n.
When K results from an aging test performed at a given tem-
perature T, it may be recommended to specify it with an index,
KT. When overall reaction constants, KT, are known for different
test temperatures, the activation energy 共E兲 can be calculated
from these values by applying the Arrhenius equation Eq. 共3兲
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Fig. 7. Development of oxidation products of field materials
retrieved from the upper part of the field cores
KT = A ⫻ e−E/RT 共3兲
where KT = overall reaction constant of aging at temperature T;
A = constant 共frequency factor兲; and E = activation energy. E
ranges between 68,500 and 86, 400 KJ· ° K / mole; R = perfect gas
constant 共8.314 J · K−1 mol−1兲; and T = absolute temperature 共°K兲.
Because of the activation energy, equal time of aging at vari-
ous temperatures will contribute in different ways to the aging of
the binder. As a result of temperature variations in the field, the
total in-service aging will be the sum of a series of partial aging
processes in which the contribution of a particular temperature
will depend on the time of exposure. The sum of the partial aging
is equivalent to an identical aging obtained at a certain constant
temperature, Tk, called “annual kinetic mean temperature.” Note
that higher temperatures contribute the most to binder aging,
which implies that most of the aging can be said to happen during
summer periods.
The activation energy is a very important parameter to corre-
late the laboratory aging processes with the field aging. Knowing
the activation energy and the kinetic mean temperature 共Tk兲, ex-
trapolation of the overall reaction constants determined in the
laboratory to field conditions is possible. These extrapolated con-
stants are corrected using Eq. 共4兲
Kactual = G ⫻ P ⫻ R ⫻ Kextrapolated 共4兲
where Kactual = reaction constant in the field; G = correction factor
to account for the type of gas used in the test, e.g., for RCAT test
G = Kair / Koxygen; P = correction factor to account for the pressure
used in the test, P = Pair / Ptest; R = correction factor for the rotation
共1兲
rate of the type of test conducted; and Kextrapolated = reaction con-
stant for a given exposure temperature.
Various laboratory tests using RCAT aging have yielded values
for these factors to be on average G = 0.57, P = 1, and R = 0.88,
which means that Kactual roughly equals 0.5⫻ Kextrapolated 共Verhas-
selt and Choquet 1997; Verhasselt 2002兲.
In Fig. 7, the aging curve was determined based on the sum of
the characteristic peak areas for oxidation at C v O and S v O.
Accordingly, the most aged binders in the laboratory using the
standard and weatherometer aging have less area than the 1-year-
共2兲
old pavement binders. The LTA bitumen using RCAT predicted
0.43 year and the binder aged for 1,000 h in the weatherometer
predicted 2.1 years of field aging using the EL model. Hence, it
was practically not possible to correlate the laboratory and field
aging of binders.
The aging rate of the trafficked lane 共SL兲 binder is higher than
the lane with no traffic 共EL兲. The logical explanation for this

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Fig. 8. Results of the penetration and ring and ball tests plotted in the
bitumen test data chart and estimation of Fraas breaking point
could be as follows: the damaging effect of traffic loading espe-
cially at lower temperatures results in microcracks. Microcracks
create new surfaces to be exposed to the influence of the environ-
mental factors promoting aging to take place.
The two outliers that are indicated in the figure might be re-
lated to the fact that the vanadium content of the bitumen recov-
ered from these sections was outside the 100–120 range that was
observed for the bitumen recovered from the other sections and
the bitumen used in the laboratory. Again it must be concluded
that the aging protocols and procedures used in the laboratory are
not able to mimic the aging that is observed in the field.
Rheological Tests Using Empirical Tests
The well-known penetration and ring and ball tests were used for
initial characterization of the virgin, laboratory aged, and field
aged bitumens. The data were plotted in Heukelom’s bitumen test
data chart 共Heukelom 1973兲 assuming that the penetration at the
Fig. 9. Master curves for Gⴱ and ␦ at the reference temperature of 20° C of the laboratory aged binders
784 / JOURNAL OF MATERIALS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING © ASCE / AUGUST 2010
J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 2010.22:779-787.
ring and ball temperature was equal to 800. Using this chart, the
Fraass breaking point was then determined. The Fraass breaking
point is the temperature at which bitumen starts to behave brittle.
The results are shown in Fig. 8.
It should be noted that the bitumen of the field cores was
recovered from the top-half of the cores 共UZ兲. The figure nicely
shows the effect of aging. It is remarkable to notice that the
Fraass breaking point increases from −15° C for the virgin bitu-
men to approximately +5 ° C for field aged bitumen.
Rheological Tests Using the Dynamic Shear
Rheometer
Fig. 9 shows the master curves for the complex shear modulus
共Gⴱ兲 and the phase angle 共␦兲 for the bitumens that are aged using
standard aging protocols and the bitumens that were recovered
from the laboratory produced PAC specimens and aged in the
weatherometer using Protocols 1, 2 or 3.
The figure clearly shows that the long-term aging procedure
共RTFOT+ RCAT兲 produces approximately similar results as
aging Protocol 3 using the weatherometer. Fig. 10 shows the mas-
ter curves for Gⴱ obtained for the binders recovered from the
upper zone of the field cores. In this figure also, the results are
shown as obtained on virgin and laboratory aged binders.
Fig. 10 clearly shows that the Gⴱ of the bitumen recovered
from the field specimens is significantly higher than the Gⴱ of the
laboratory produced specimens. Likewise the ␦ of the field speci-
mens is significantly lower. Furthermore one can observe that the
so called long-term aging protocol 共LTA; RTFOT+ RCAT兲 and
Protocol 3 共AP3兲 using the weatherometer are only capable to
produce an amount of aging equivalent to 1 year of field aging!
The laboratory aging procedures and protocols are simply not
capable of mimicking the aging that occurs in the field. To some
extent this was expected because the aging procedures and proto-
cols used have been developed for dense mixtures which, because
of their low void contents 共3–5% in The Netherlands兲 have a
much lower sensitivity to aging than PAC. That only 1 year of
field aging could be simulated, was not expected however.
The question might arise whether the bitumens used in the
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Fig. 10. Master curves for Gⴱ and ␦ at a reference temperature of 20° C for bitumens recovered from field specimens 共taken from the EL兲 and
laboratory produced and aged specimens

field were the same as the laboratory produced specimens. Unfor- or elongation 共mm兲; and Le = effective length= 33.8 mm.
tunately, construction records did not give information of the bi-
tumen used in terms of producer and crude. In all cases however
an 80/100 pen or 70/100 pen bitumen was used because use of End tab
this type of bitumen is prescribed in the specifications. In order to
get more information about this important issue, the vanadium Bitumen / Mastic
content of the field recovered bitumens was determined and com- specimen
pared with the vanadium content of the Q8 bitumen that was used
in the laboratory. Effective length
Le
All recovered bitumens except the one recovered from the
0-year-old section and the one recovered from the 12-year-old SL
had vanadium contents between 100 and 120 which compared
well with the vanadium content of 118 of the Q8 bitumen. From
NB:
these results it was concluded that compositional differences be- All dimensions are in mm
tween the tested bitumens were in general so small that they could
not have influenced the rheological behavior. The differences in
rheological behavior as shown in Fig. 10 are therefore caused by
aging. Figs. 12–15 show the results as obtained on the virgin bitu-
men, the long-term aged bitumen, the virgin, and long-term aged
Direct Tension Tests mastic. It should be noted that the mastic is composed by mixing
bitumen 共b兲 with filler 共f兲.
Direct tensile tests 共DTT兲 on bitumen and mastic were performed
at constant elongation rates. The tests were performed at ⫺10,
⫺5, and 0 ° C. Fig. 11 shows a typical result of a DTT test. In all
tests fracture of the specimen was observed. The stress and strain
in the bituminous specimen is calculated using Eqs. 共5兲 and 共6兲,
respectively. The maximum stress is considered as the failure
stress and the corresponding strain is the failure strain
P共t兲 P共t兲
␴共t兲 = = 共5兲
A 共b · h兲

␧= 冉 冊 ⌬l
Le
⫻ 100% 共6兲

where ␴共t兲 = time dependant stress 共MPa兲; ␧ = strain 共%兲; P共t兲

= applied axial force 共N兲; A = cross-sectional area of specimen
共⬇36 mm2兲; b = average width of the specimen 共mm兲; h
= average thickness of the specimen 共mm兲; ⌬l = change in length Fig. 11. Principle of the direct tension test

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Fig. 12. Direct tension test results obtained on the virgin bitumen
Fig. 12 clearly shows the effect of temperature on the tensile
strength and strain at break. For the virgin bitumen, e.g., the ten-
sile strength increases with decreasing temperature while the
strain at break decreases.
When Fig. 13 is compared with Fig. 12, one immediately ob-
serves the increase in tensile strength of the bitumen as a result of
aging 共⬇2.3 MPa at 0 ° C for virgin bitumen at 40 mm/min and
⬇4 MPa for the LTA bitumen tested under the same conditions兲.
Furthermore one observes a decrease in strain at break. The strain
at break ⬇7% for the virgin bitumen when tested at 0 ° C at a
displacement rate of 40 mm/min, and ⬇2.5% for the LTA bitumen
when tested under the same conditions.
Fig. 13. Direct tension results obtained on the LTA bitumen
Fig. 14. Direct tension results obtained on virgin mastics at various
temperatures and displacement rates at a filler; bitumen ratio of 1
786 / JOURNAL OF MATERIALS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING © ASCE / AUGUST 2010
J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 2010.22:779-787.
Fig. 15. Direct tension results obtained on LTA mastics with a filler;
bitumen ratio of 1
Fig. 14 shows that the virgin mastic has a tensile strength of
about 5 MPa at 0 ° C and a displacement rate of 40 mm/min. The
strain at break for the virgin mastic when tested under the same
conditions is about 6%. This indicates that mixing the bitumen
with filler results in a stronger material with a slightly lower strain
at break.
Fig. 15 shows that long-term aging of the mastic increases its
strength and reduces its flexibility. At 0 ° C and a displacement
rate of 40 mm/min the tensile strength of the LTA mastic is ap-
proximately 6.5 MPa while the strain at break is in the order of
3%.
Fatigue
Fatigue tests were performed using repeated DSR tests. The tests
were strain controlled fatigue tests and were all done at a tem-
perature of 20° C. During each test, the decrease of the torque was
measurement as well as the phase angle. Typical fatigue test re-
sults are shown in Fig. 16. The figure clearly shows that the field
aged specimens 共Field7yrEL and Field12yrEL, EL indicates that
the bitumen was recovered from a core taken from the EL兲 have
a much higher stiffness than the virgin and laboratory aged speci-
mens.
Fig. 17 shows the fatigue results obtained on virgin, laboratory
aged, and field aged binders using the Wöhler type of represen-
tation. The strain is the initially applied shear strain while the
number of load repetitions to failure is the number of load repeti-
Fig. 16. Decrease of the complex shear modulus during fatigue tests
performed at 10% strain, 20° C, and 20 rad/s

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Fig. 17. Fatigue performance of virgin, laboratory aged, and field
aged bitumen
tions at which the shear modulus has decreased to 50% of its
initial value 共Van Dijk and Visser 1977; Pronk and Hopman
1990兲. The figure shows that the laboratory aged specimens per-
formed better than the virgin bitumen.
However the field aged specimens showed a poor resistance to
fatigue when compared to the fatigue behavior of the virgin bitu-
men. The fatigue results have also been analyzed using the pro-
cedures described in Bahia et al. 共2001兲 and Bonnetti et al.
共2002兲. These analyses however will not be described here. The
interested reader is referred to Hagos 共2007兲. It has been indicated
before that the laboratory aging procedures could mimic at best
2–3 years of aging in the field. Taking this into account, one could
hypothesize that aging initially improves the fatigue resistance
but has a negative influence on the fatigue performance after a
certain period. This might be caused by changes in the chemical
composition, no evidence for this could however be found.
Conclusions
Based on the results obtained in this research, the following con-
clusions are drawn:
1. Aging is a very complex process that is influenced by many
factors.
2. Because of the large number of factors involved, it is almost
impossible to simulate precisely in the laboratory the aging
that will occur in the field.
3. The existing laboratory aging protocols might be good
enough to simulate the aging of dense asphalt mixtures in the
field but they are certainly insufficient to simulate long-term
field aging of PAC within a reasonable period of time.
4. When the results of the different aging tests as performed in
the laboratory are compared with the amount of aging that is
determined from field samples, one notices that subjecting
laboratory specimens to a combined effect of moisture tem-
perature and UV radiation is necessary to obtain changes in
chemical composition that are comparable to what happens
in practice.
5. Although it has been shown that RTFOT+ RCAT aging of
laboratory samples results in a different chemical composi-
tion than aging by means of a weatherometer using tempera-
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING © ASCE / AUGUST 2010 / 787
J. Mater. Civ. Eng. 2010.22:779-787.
ture, oxygen, and UV radiation, the differences in rheological
properties of binders aged by means of the two protocols is
only marginal.
6. From the results obtained from the field samples it is con-
cluded that not only environmental influences are the cause
of aging. Also traffic has a certain influence that cannot be
neglected.
7. Aging causes that the bituminous binder in PAC mixtures
might start to behave brittle at temperatures above 0 ° C.
8. DSR tests showed that not only Gⴱ of the binder increases
due to aging but that also the phase angle ␦ decreases sig-
nificantly. Although not discussed in this paper, this indicates
that the binder loses its stress relaxation capacity. Stress re-
laxation is an important factor in case temperature induced
stresses occur. If these temperature stresses do not reduce
due to stress relaxation, then they might, in combination with
traffic induced stresses, result in early failure.
9. Although not discussed in this paper, the increase in Gⴱ and
decrease of ␦ also indicate a loss in healing capacity of the
binder.
10. It seems that aging initially improves the fatigue characteris-
tics of the binder. However aging has a negative effect on the
fatigue resistance if the binder is subjected to aging for a
considerable amount of time.
References
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Anderson, R. M. 共2001兲. “Characterisation of modified asphalt bind-
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ington, D.C.
Bonnetti, K. S., Nam, K., and Bahia, H. U. 共2002兲. “Measuring and
defining fatigue behaviour of asphalt binders.” Transportation Re-
search Record. 1810, Transportation Research Board, Washington
D.C.
Hagos, E. 共2007兲. “The effect of aging on binder properties of porous
asphalt concrete.” Ph.D. thesis, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, The
Netherlands.
Hagos, E. T., Molenaar, A. A. A., van de Ven, M. F. C., and Voskuilen, J.
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