Ageing by UV radiation of an elastomer modified bitumen

Laboratory methods to simulate the short- and long-term ageing occuring during the service life of pure and polymer modified bitumens in a pavement are standardized but none of them takes into account the influence of UV radiations. If the impact of thermal ageing on the degradation of SBS elastomers in bitumens has been extensively studied, there is not study dealing with the photo-oxidation of these copolymers in a bituminous matrix. So, the aim of our study was to investigate, by FTIR spectrometry and SEC chromatography, whether the architecture of elastomers (linear or radial) might have any influence on their ageing by UV radiation in a bituminous matrix. The results show that the elastomers oxidation kinetic, unlike the disappearance kinetic of trans-butadiene double bond, does not depend on their architecture. But, when putted into the same base bitumen, the two copolymers show exactly the same oxidation kinetic and the same decreasing kinetic of trans-butadiene double bond. So, this study has revealed that inside the bituminous matrix, on the one hand, the elastomers architecture does not influence on its degradation when submitted to UV radiation and, on the other hand, there is a "protection" of the elastomers by the studied bitumen towards UV radiation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.