Asphalt-Binder Mixtures Evaluated by T1 NMR Relaxometry

Asphalt pavements make up a majority of the essential transportation systems in the US. Asphalt mixtures age and degrade over time, reducing the pavement performance. Pavement performance critically depends on the aging of asphalt binder. The aging of asphalt binder during construction is traditionally modeled by rolling thin film oven (RTFO) testing, while aging during service life is modeled by pressure aging vessel (PAV) testing. Comparing these models to the aging of binders in actual pavements is limited because, to be used for current testing, binders must be separated from the pavement's aggregate by solvent extraction. Solvent extraction will, at least in part, compromise the structural integrity of asphalt binder samples. Spin-lattice NMR relaxometry has been shown to nondestructively evaluate asphalt properties in situ through the analysis of hydrogen environments. The molecular mobility of hydrogen environments and with it the stiffness of asphalt binder samples can be determined by characteristic T-1 relaxation times, indicating the complexity of asphalt-binder aging. In this study, two laboratory-generated asphalt mixtures, a failed field sample, and several laboratory-aged binder samples are compared by NMR relaxometry. NMR relaxometry was found to be able to differentiate between asphalt samples based on their binder percentage. According to the relaxometry findings, the RTFO binder aging compared favorably to the 6% laboratory-mixed sample. The PAV aging, however, did not compare well to the relaxometry results found for the field-aged sample. The amount of aggregate was found to have an influence on the relaxation times of the binder in the mixed samples and an inverse proportionality of the binder content to the primary NMR relaxation time was detected. It is concluded that molecular water present in the pores of the aggregate material gives rise to such a relationship. The findings of this study lay the foundation for nondestructive asphalt performance evaluation by NMR relaxometry.