Asphalt oxidation causes major changes to binder properties and is hypothesized to be a major contributor to age-related pavement failure such as fatigue cracking. Extensive laboratory aging research has been done to assess the effects of oxidation on binder properties. Previous work shows binder oxidation makes the binder stiffer and more brittle, leading to higher binder stresses under a given deformation. Failure occurs when these stresses exceed the strength of the binder. However, binder oxidation in pavements has not been studied in the same detail as laboratory aging of neat binders. The impact of binder oxidation on long-term pavement performance has been either underestimated or ignored. This research includes studies of binder oxidation in Texas pavements to compare the field aging with laboratory neat binder aging, the impact of binder oxidation on HMAC mixture aging and HMAC mixture fatigue performance, and fundamental rheological property changes of the binder and the mixture. Binder oxidation is studied in fifteen pavements from locations across Texas. Results indicate that unmodified binders in pavements typically oxidize and harden to a degree that exceeds generally accepted pavement aging assumptions. This hardening may also extend much deeper into the pavement than has been previously assumed or documented. Data suggest that pavements can oxidize at rates surprisingly uniform with depth once early oxidation occurs, and that these rates continue for an extended time. Laboratory-aged HMAC mixtures and binders were tested and analyzed for fatigue resistance and their rheological properties. Mixture aging shows the same aging mechanisms as neat binder aging. Both binder and mixture have a higher modulus with aging and a good rheological correlation. The decline in mixture fatigue life (determined using the calibrated mechanistic fatigue analysis approach with surface energy measurement) due to oxidation is significant. Pavement service life is dependent on the mixture, but can be estimated by a cumulative damage approach that considers binder oxidation and pavement loading rate simultaneously. The differences in expected pavement life arise from differences in the rate of binder stiffening due to oxidation and the impact of this stiffening on the decline of fatigue life.

Asphalt binder oxidation in pavements has been proven to be an ongoing process throughout a pavement's service life. Understanding the nature of the oxidation process is a critical step toward better pavement design to achieve greater pavement durability. The main component in asphalt binder oxidation in pavements is binder oxidative hardening. As the aromatic compounds in asphalt binders are oxidized, more polar carbonyl compounds are created, which results in stronger associations between asphalt components and eventually leads to an increase in asphalt elastic modulus and viscosity. Consequently, the performance of pavements is affected directly by asphalt binder hardening. Also, low levels of accessible air voids in pavements potentially relate to binder oxidation according to a recent research study. When the pavements have sufficiently high accessible air voids (4 percent or greater), the oxidation rate is largely determined by the temperature in the pavement. On the other hand, when the percentage of accessible air voids in the pavement is considerably lower (2 percent or less), the hardening rate of binders in pavements is reduced significantly. Field evidence is mounting that asphalt binder oxidization in pavements produces a binder that is more susceptible to thermal and fatigue cracking. While the fundamentals of this oxidation process are fairly well known, predicting quantitatively the rate of oxidation as a function of depth in the pavement, is not straightforward. A thermal and oxygen transport model, coupled with binder reaction kinetics, provides the basis for such calculations. A one-dimensional thermal transport model, coupled with site-specific model parameters and recent improvements in the availability of required input climate data, enables calculation of pavement temperatures throughout the year, which then is used in an asphalt binder oxidation and transport model to calculate binder properties in the pavement over time. Calculated binder property changes with depth and time are compared to measurements of binder oxidation in the field. The work in this study is aimed at understanding the oxidation kinetics of asphalt binders in pavements, determining the impact of accessible air void levels on asphalt hardening, and ultimately developing an improved model of asphalt binder oxidation in pavements.

Fatigue cracking is one primary distress in asphalt pavements, dominant especially in later years of service. Prediction of mixture fatigue resistance is critical for various applications, e.g., pavement design and preventative maintenance. The goal of this work was to develop a tool for prediction of binder aging level and mixture fatigue life in pavement from unaged binder/mixture properties. To fulfill this goal, binder oxidation during the early fast-rate period must be understood. In addition, a better hourly air temperature model is required to provide accurate input for the pavement temperature prediction model. Furthermore, a user-friendly software needs to be developed to incorporate these findings. Experiments were conducted to study the carbonyl group formation in one unmodified binder (SEM 64-22) and one polymer-modified binder (SEM 70-22), aged at five elevated temperatures. Data of SEM 64-22, especially at low temperatures, showed support for a parallel-reaction model, one first order reaction and one zero order reaction. The model did not fit data of SEM 70-22. The polymer modification of SEM 70-22 might be responsible for this discrepancy. Nonetheless, more data are required to draw a conclusion. Binder oxidation rate is highly temperature dependent. Hourly air temperature data are required as input for the pavement temperature prediction model. Herein a new pattern-based air temperature model was developed to estimate hourly data from daily data. The pattern is obtained from time series analysis of measured data. The new model yields consistently better results than the conventional sinusoidal model. The pavement aging and fatigue analysis (PAFA) software developed herein synthesizes new findings from this work and constant-rate binder oxidation and hardening kinetics and calibrated mechanistic approach with surface energy (CMSE) fatigue analysis algorithm from literature. Input data include reaction kinetics parameters, mixture test results, and pavement temperature. Carbonyl area growth, dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) function hardening, and mixture fatigue life decline are predicted as function of time. Results are plotted and saved in spreadsheets.