Aging effect of damp-heat and saline-alkali environment on fatigue performance and chemical evolution of asphalt

ABSTRACT

Asphalt in damp-heat and saline-alkali areas is prone to damage, which resulting in fatigue failure of the mixture. However, the aging damage of asphalt in these areas has not been paid enough attention, and there is a lack of effective evaluation method for asphalt’s fatigue performance. In this paper, the base asphalt and SBS-modified asphalt were immersed in several solutions (water, NaCl and Na₂CO₃) to simulate aging conditions and the frequency sweep test was employed to determine the viscoelasticity properties of the asphalt. And the fatigue properties of the asphalt were analysed by the simplified viscoelastic continuum damage model. The microstructural and chemical evolution of asphalt was investigated by SEM, FTIR, the pH value and total organic carbon tests. After being immersed, the anti-deformation properties of two asphalts were strengthened. The solution erosion led to an increased loss rate of the integrity factor C*, and resulting in weakened fatigue properties of asphalt. The oxygen-containing functional group gradually increased with the extension of immersion. There were chemical interactions in addition to physical interface disruption during the immersion process. Moreover, the influence of Na₂CO₃ solution on asphalt ranked first due to the highest molar concentration of Na⁺ and the OH⁻ produced by hydrolysis of ${\mathrm{C}\mathrm{O}}_3^{2-}$.

KEYWORDS:

• Asphalt aging
• damp-heat and saline-alkali
• viscoelastic
• fatigue
• microstructural
• chemical evolution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data used during the research appear in the submitted article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 52278427], Key R&D Program Funding Project of Shaanxi Provincial [grant number 2018SF-380)], Jiangxi Transportation Science and Technology Project [grant number 2016C0005] and the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research of Central Colleges, Chang’an University [grant number 300102310301], [grant number 300102311404].