Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627

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Construction and Building Materials

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Research on Ultra Violet (UV) aging depth of asphalts

Wenbo Zeng a,b, Shaopeng Wu a, Ling Pang a,⇑, Haohao Chen a, Jinxuan Hu a, Yihan Sun a,
Zongwu Chen a
a
State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
b
CCCC Second Highway Consultant Co. Ltd, Wuhan 430070, China

h i g h l i g h t s

Only the limited surface of asphalts (0–4.5 lm) could be UV aged directly.

The direct UV aged asphalts within 0–4.5 lm could gradually diffuse to the under layer (under 4.5 lm) of asphalts.

The diffusing depth was keeping increasing with increment of UV aging time.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: UV radiation contains high energy which could excite asphalt molecules to excited states or break the
Received 12 October 2016 covalently bond of asphalt. It leads to the asphalt aging on surface of asphalt pavement during servicing
Received in revised form 26 July 2017 period. However, UV aging principle of asphalt is not quite clear. Even the thickness of asphalt that
Accepted 11 November 2017
researchers used in UV aging simulation experiments were not unified. So in this paper, the UV aging
Available online 23 November 2017
depth of asphalt was investigated by Ultraviolet Spectrophotometer tests (UST) and peeling method. In
the UST, the statistics presented that the transmittance of asphalt reached 0% when the thickness of
Keywords:
asphalt was around 4.5 lm. And in the peeling method, the aged asphalt was peeled layer by layer using
UV aging
Depth
carbon disulfide. Then the properties of peeled aged asphalts were evaluated by temperature sweep test
Asphalts (carried by Dynamic shearing rheometer) and four components test. And the changing properties of
Ultraviolet spectrophotometer tests peeled aged asphalts showed that the aged asphalt on the top surface was diffused to the underpart
Peeling method asphalt. And the diffusion depth of UV aged asphalt could be nearly 2200 lm at 10 d UV aging time.
And finally, the UV aging model asphalt was built. All the results indicated that UV radiation could only
age the limited depth of asphalt and the aging phenomenon of lower asphalt (under 4.5 lm) was caused
by diffusion of the surface aged asphalt within 4.5 lm thickness.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Asphalts act as a kind of organic binders which are widely used
in the pavement construction. The comfort and smoothness of
asphalt pavement is extraordinary better than cement pavement.
But asphalts will be aged just like all the organic materials during
their service period [1–3]. And the properties of asphalts become
worse due to the aging happened during mixing, laying and expo-
sure to environment [4–7]. The main aging mechanism of asphalt
includes the thermal oxidation aging and UV aging. Both of them
would make asphalts harder and more brittle. It would lead to
many distresses on pavement, like cracking, peeling and deforma-
tion. So it is urgent to develop aging simulation experiments for
predicting properties changes of asphalts after aging. However,
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lingpang@whut.edu.cn (L. Pang).
unlike the thermal oxidation aging, which have certain simulation
standards (rolling thin film oven test, thin film oven test, pressure
aging vessel test) [8–10], the UV aging as one of main aging reasons
does not possess any aging standard.
In the UV aging process, many factors could influence the UV
aging index of asphalts, such as temperature, UV radiation density,
UV radiation types and thickness of sample. They are all key factors
in the UV simulation experiments. However, in the former UV
aging researches, the thickness of asphalt samples was not uni-
formed. In most UV aging investigations, the asphalt samples were
totally the same as pressure aging vessel test (PAV). 50 g asphalt
was poured into a U15 ± 0.5 mm iron pan to form 2 mm thick of
asphalt. For examples, Z. Feng, H. Zhang, M. Naskar, F. Xiao, P.
Pan and J. Yu selected this kind of asphalt samples (2 mm thick
of asphalt) to carry out UV aging simulation experiment [11–15].
And a few researchers applied different thickness of asphalt to ful-
fil UV aging. Such as, V. Mouillet deposited the asphalt solution on

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.11.047
0950-0618/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627 621

a slide to form 10 lm asphalt film and used it as UV aging samples Table 2

[16]. S. Wu investigated the UV aging of asphalt with 50, 100, 150, Thickness of 70A films and 90A films.

and 200 lm[17]. And in X. Liu’s and S. Wu’s paper, they used 1250 Samples Thickness
lm asphalt film to conduct the UV aging simulation tests [18,19]. 70A (5% concentration) 2.5 lm
In the above papers related to UV aging, all the researchers did 70A (10% concentration) 3.3 lm
not explain why the thickness of asphalt was selected in their 70A (15% concentration) 3.7 lm
investigation. However, the thickness of asphalt is a very important 70A (20% concentration) 4.5 lm
70A (25% concentration) 8.1 lm
factor and should be carefully considered in the UV aging test. 70A (30% concentration) 14.7 lm
So it is important to investigate the UV aging depth of asphalts 90A (5% concentration) 2.1 lm
in order to guide the selection for asphalt thickness in UV aging 90A (10% concentration) 3.5 lm
simulation test in the future. So in this paper, the aging depth of 90A (15% concentration) 4.4 lm
90A (20% concentration) 5.1 lm
asphalt was studied by Ultraviolet Spectrophotometer tests (UST)
90A (25% concentration) 9.5 lm
and peeling method. Firstly, asphalt films with different thickness 90A (30% concentration) 15.3 lm
were formed as UST samples by Spin Coater. Then the UV transmit-
tance was investigated with different films to find out how deep
the UV radiation would affect the asphalt. At the meanwhile, the
2.3. UST
surface of aged samples was peeled layer by layer using carbon
disulfide as solvent in peeling method. Moreover, the peeled
The UST could directly find out how deep asphalt UV radiation
asphalts were tested by temperature sweep test (carried by
could go through. The working principle and UTS machine were
Dynamic shearing rheometer) and components test. Through the
shown in Figs. 1 and 2 respectively. In Fig. 1, the UV radiation
changing properties of peeled asphalts, the aging depth was stud-
reached the surface of asphalt film with certain thickness. If the
ied. Finally, the model of asphalt UV aging was built by all the anal-
asphalt film was thin enough, the UV radiation could transmit
ysis of results.
the asphalt film. So the UV detecting probe could detect the UV sig-
nal behind the asphalt film. Then more thick asphalt films were
applied in UST to find out at which thickness UV radiation could
not go through the asphalt film. The thickness of UTS samples
2. Experiments was shown in Section 2.2. Once the transmittance of UV radiation
became 0%, the thickness of asphalt film was considered as the
2.1. Materials maximum depth that UV aging reaction could occur. Because the
UV aging reaction of asphalt needs UV radiation to excite asphalt
Asphalts with 60/80 pen grade and 80/90 pen grade were used molecules or break the covalently bond of asphalt. So without UV
in this research. They were bought from KOCH Asphalt Co. Ltd radiation, the UV aging reaction could never happen. That meant
(Hubei Province, China). The physical properties of the used UV aging could only occur at certain depth of asphalt that UV radi-
asphalts were listed in Table 1. 70A and 90A are abbreviations of ation could transmit.
asphalts with 60/80 pen grade and 80/90 pen grade respectively. The wavelength used in this test ranges from 200 nm to
800 nm.

2.4. Peeling method

2.2. UST samples preparation
Peeling method was another experiment design to detect how
In order to produce a uniform thin film on a substrate, a spin deep asphalt would be UV aged in this paper. Fig. 3 showed the
coater was applied to make the thin film of asphalt. Firstly, differ- peeling procedure that used in this research. Fig. 4 showed the
ent concentrations (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) of asphalt solutions peeling operation.
were prepared by carbon disulfide. Then a quartz glass slide was Cause only the surface of asphalt would be aged under the
fixed by a vacuum chuck of spin coater. After that, five drops of effects of UV radiation, the problem was that it was hard to form
asphalt solution were dropped on the fixed quartz glass slide. a thin film on a substrate and remove the thin film from the sub-
One drop was dropped in the middle of slide and the other four strate after UV aging. So the peeling method was invented to only
drops were around the middle drop. Afterwards, the spin coating peel certain mass of surface asphalt to avoid this problem. The
process was begun with 600 rpm and 30 s coating time. Finally, working principle of peeling method was shown in Fig. 3. First of
the asphalt film was coated on the quartz glass slide.
The film thickness was tested by Step Profiler. The height differ-
ence between surface of the asphalt film and surface of the quartz
glass slide was detected by the probe of Step Profiler. So the height
difference equals to the thickness of the coated asphalt film. Table 2
showed different thickness of asphalt film samples, which would
be tested by UTS later.

Table 1
Physical properties of 70A and 90A.

Physical properties 70A 90A

Softening point (°C) 49.8 47.8
Penetration (25 °C, 0.1 mm) 67.0 84.7
Ductility (10 °C, 1 cm) >150 >150
Viscosity (60 °C, pa s) 205 204
Viscosity (135 °C, pa s) 0.4 0.4
Fig. 1. Working principle of UTS.
622 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627
Fig. 2. Diagram of UTS machine.
Fig. 3. Peeling procedure.
Fig. 4. Peeling operation.
all, a glass container (U90 ± 0.2 mm) was fulfilled with 70A and
90A. Secondly, the fulfilled container was placed to an UV aging
box to obtain the aged samples. Thirdly, the top of the container
was immersed into another glass container (U97.5 ± 0.2 mm), in
which it was put 10 g carbon disulfide. The immersed time was
controlled at 60 s in order to peel almost the same mass from
the surface of aged asphalt. Then, the peeled asphalt solution
was placed in an oven with 50 °C for 24 h to evaporate carbon
disulfide fully from asphalt solution. Finally, the aged surface
asphalt was obtained by this method. The thickness of peeled
asphalt was calculated by Eq. (1).
Then the properties of peeled asphalts samples were evaluated
by temperature sweep and four components test.
The fresh asphalts (70A and 90A) were peeled by this method
alone to find out whether the whole peeling method had effects
on properties of asphalts or not. The results of temperature sweep
showed that the complex modulus of peeled fresh asphalt and
fresh asphalt were overlapped. So it implied that the peeling
method would not affect the properties of asphalts.
The mass of peeled asphalt
The thickness of peeled asphalt ¼
2
p  90mm
2
 density of asphalt
ð1Þ
2.5. Temperature sweep
Temperature sweep test was conducted by Dynamic shearing
rheometer. A constant frequency of 10 rad/s was selected and test-
ing temperature ranged from 30 °C to 80 °C with 2 °C increment
per minute in this test. The complex modulus of peeled aged
asphalts was monitored to evaluate the changing hardness of
peeled asphalt layer by layer.
2.6. Components analysis
Components analysis was tested by a fully automatic asphalt
analyze instrument. The analyze instrument was a thin-layer
chromatography-flame ionization detector (TLC-FID) produced by
IATROSCAN in Japan. Compared with the traditional components
analysis method, this method had the advantages of fast detection
speed (about 30 s) and high sensitivity. The specific process for
four components analysis of peeled aged asphalts was displayed
as follows: Firstly, 80 mg peeled aged asphalt was dissolved in 4
mL dichloromethane to prepare the asphalt solution with concen-
tration of 2% (mass/volume ratio). Then 1 lL of the prepared solu-
tion was dropped at origin point of a silica gel chromatography bar
by five times. Thirdly, put the prepared silica gel chromatography
bar into three expansion slot for expansion. The expansion solvent
in the first expansion slot was n-heptane. Second expansion sol-
vent was heptane/toluene mixture (volume ratio 1:4, the total vol-
ume is 70 mL). And third expansion solvent was toluene/ethanol
mixture (volume ratio of 11:9 the total volume, 70 mL). After
expansion process, put the expanded silica gel chromatography
bar in a oven for 1 min with 80 °C to evaporate the solvents com-
pletely. Finally, the prepared silica gel chromatography bar was
placed into TLC-FID to analyze the components of asphalt.
2.7. UV aging process
The glass container filled with asphalt was put in an UV aging
box. And four high-pressure mercury lamps were selected as light
source for UV aging, which were placed uniformly at the top of UV
aging box. The main wave length of mercury lamp was 365 nm and
the UV density at the surface of asphalt samples was controlled at
15 W/m2. The aging temperature was controlled at 50 °C [20].
3. Results and discussions
3.1. UST
Figs. 5 and 6 displayed the transmittance of 70A film and 90A
film with different thickness. From these two pictures, it could
be seen that the transmittance of both 70A film and 90A film grad-
ually declined with the increasing thickness of asphalt film. And it
could be easily explained that the more thick film of course could
absorb more light radiation. This phenomenon also indirectly
meant the spin coating method was feasible and efficient to form
different thickness of asphalt film because the results were very
orderly.
Meanwhile, the wavelength of UV radiation ranges from
190 nm to 400 nm. So the transmittance should be the mainly
 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627 623

Fig. 5. Transmittance of 70A film with different thickness.

Fig. 6. Transmittance of 90A film with different thickness.

considered in this wavelength scope. In Fig. 5, the transmittance of
2.5 lm, 3.3 lm, 3.7 lm, and 4.5 lm of 70A films were 16%, 2.12%,
0.37% and 0% respectively at 400 nm. And in Fig. 6, the transmit-
tance of 2.1 lm, 3.5 lm and 4.4 lm of 90A films were 16.7%,
2.05% and 0% respectively at 400 nm. The results could draw the
conclusion that UV radiation could only go through very limited
(around 4.5 lm) depth of asphalts. That meant only the surface
asphalt could be excited states or the covalently bond of asphalt
could be broken above the depth of 4.5 lm. Then only this part
of asphalt could be aged by UV radiation.
plex modulus of asphalts. So temperature sweep test and compo-
nents test were used to monitor the changing complex modulus
and components of UV aged asphalts from the top layer to lower
layer. The changing properties could explain how deep the asphalt
would be UV aged in UV simulation experiment.
In the peeling method, the thinner peeled layer meant the bet-
ter detective accuracy. However, no less than 50 lm peeled asphalt
was permitted in the peeling method. Because the temperature
sweep test need no less than 0.3 g asphalt and components test
need no less than 0.08 g asphalt.

3.2. Peeling method

After UV aging, the components of asphalt would be changed.
Less light components (saturates and aromatics) and more heavy
components (resins and asphaltenes) after UV aging would make
the asphalt harder. And also, the UV aging would increase the com-
3.2.1. Temperature sweep test
In temperature tests, the complex modulus of asphalt could be
monitored. The larger modulus means the larger aging index of
asphalt. It is convenient to decide the aging depth of asphalt.
Because once the complex modulus of peeled asphalt was the same
624 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627

as the unaged sample, the position of this layer is considered as the

maximum UV aging depth.
Figs. 7 and 8 showed the complex modulus of peeled age 70A
and 90A with 1 h UV aging time. It could be seen that the complex
modulus of 0–63 lm of 70A and 0–59 lm of 90A were slightly lar-
ger than the unaged sample. And the complex modulus of second
layer (63 lm–154 lm, 59 lm–139 lm) of aged 70A and aged
90A were almost the same as fresh 70A and 90A respectively. This
results meant the aged depth was less than 63 lm for both
asphalts due to the complex modulus under 60 lm was equal to
fresh samples. Compared to the UTS results, this phenomenon
was understandable because only 0–4.5 lm top asphalt could be
UV aged according to UTS results. In the first layer of both aged
asphalts, it might be the mixture of aged asphalt (0–4.5 lm) and
fresh asphalt (4.5–60 lm). And the asphalt under 60 lm surely
could not be aged without UV radiation.
And the samples were also UV aged for 2 h, 3 h and 5 h. The
Fig. 8. Complex modulus of peeled 90A with 1 h UV aging time.
complex modulus results of both asphalts with these aging times
were almost the same as the samples with UV aging time 1 h.
The complex modulus of first layer was slightly increasing with
increment of aging time. The complex modulus of second layer
was almost the same as the fresh asphalts.
However, when aging time came to 10 h, the changing tendency
of modulus was not the same as the samples aged with 1,h 2 h, 3 h
and 5 h. The aging depth was deeper than the position of first layer.
Figs. 9 and 10 showed the complex modulus of peeled 70A and
90A with UV aging 10 h. From these two graphes, the complex
modulus of first layers of both aged 70A and 90A were also the big-
gest layer. But, when it came to the second layer (56–127 lm of
70A-UV-10 h and 72–173 lm of 90A-UV-10 h), their complex
modulus were not the same as the fresh asphalts anymore. The
complex modulus of third layer (127–210 lm of 70A-UV-10 h
and 173–303 lm of 90A-UV-10 h) were the same as the fresh
asphalts. This results meant the aging depth was increasing to
127 lm for 70A and 173 lm for 90A compared to the results of
UV aged 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, 5 h.
And for the samples aged at 5d and 10d, the aging depth chan- Fig. 9. Complex modulus of peeled 90A with 10 h UV aging time.
ged again. The results of UV aging 5d and 10d for both asphalts
were displayed in Figs. 11–14 respectively.
For 5d UV aging of 70A, the complex modulus of layer from 0 to
622 lm was gradually reducing. And the complex modulus of layer
ranging from 622 lm to 744 lm was almost the same as the fresh
70A. For 5d UV aging of 90A, the complex modulus of layer from 0
to 799 lm was gradually decreasing. The complex modulus of
layer ranging from 799 lm to 1014 lm was almost the same as
the fresh 90A. And for 10 d UV aging, the aging depth of 70A and
90A were extremely larger than samples aged for 10 h. The aging

Fig. 10. Complex modulus of peeled 90A with 10 h UV aging time.

Fig. 7. Complex modulus of peeled 70A with 1 h UV aging time.
depth reached to 2160 lm and 2215 lm for 70A and 90A respec-
tively at 10 d aging time.
According to the results of UTS, it was proved that the transmit-
tance depth of UV radiation in asphalt was around 4.5 lm. So in
theory, the asphalt under 4.5 lm could not be UV aged because
of lacking the effects of UV radiation. However, it was also proved
that the aging depth was increasing with the increase of UV aging
 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627
Fig. 11. Complex modulus of peeled 70A with 5d UV aging time.
Fig. 12. Complex modulus of peeled 90A with 5d UV aging time.
Fig. 13. Complex modulus of peeled 70A with 10d UV aging time.
time by peeling method. This two results seemed to contradict
each other. But using diffusion theory could effectively explain this
phenomenon. According to UTS tests, only 4.5 lm of asphalt could
be aged by UV radiation. It made that the components of the aged
asphalt were not the same as the lower asphalt. So mass transfer
action happened due to the difference of components between
625
Fig. 14. Complex modulus of peeled 90A with 10d UV aging time.
top aged asphalt and lower unaged asphalt. Thus, the results of
peeling method from 1 h to 10 d could be explained by the fact that
the top aged asphalt (0–4.5 lm) was diffused to the lower layer.
That was why only the top layer was aged and the second layer
was not before 5 h aging. For more aging time, the components
of aged asphalt had enough time to diffuse to lower than 50 lm
position.
3.2.2. Components test
The components of asphalts were quite complex. In general,
asphalts were divided into four components (saturates, aromatics,
resins and asphaltenes). In the aging process of asphalts, the chan-
ged components would lead to the worse properties of asphalts.
For example, the evaporation of saturates and polymerization of
aromatics, resins and asphaltenes could all break the stable asphalt
properties. Thus the four components of asphalts were analyzed by
TLC-FID. During the analyses in this test, the Gaestel index (IC) was
also used to evaluate the changing properties of aged asphalts. The
IC was equal to sum percentage of saturates and asphaltenes
divided by the sum percentage of resins and aromatics. It repre-
sented the sol-gel system of asphalt. The higher IC meant the more
gel type and the worse colloidal stability of asphalt [3].
From Tables 3 and 4, it could be seen that the asphaltenes and IC
were keeping increasing with the raising aging time at first layer of
70A and 90A. However, the changing tendency of resins and aro-
matics was not orderly. And the changes of saturates was not so
obvious. This phenomenon might be caused by the fact that the
aromatics were condensed to resins and the resins were condensed
to asphaltenes, which led to the keeping increasing asphaltenes at
the UV aging process. And at the condensation process of resins,
the chains of resins were also broken to convert aromatics during
UV aging. It made the changing percentages of aromatics and
resins stay in a dynamic status. This was why the changing ten-
dency of aromatics and resins was not orderly. For saturates, the
stable percentage of it could be explained by the fact that the UV
aging temperature was controlled at 50 °C. The temperature was
not high enough to evaporate the saturates. So the asphaltenes
and IC were the key parameters to analyze the aging depth of
asphalts.
It could be seen from Tables 3 and 4 that the components of the
second layer were almost the same as the 70A and 90A under 5 h
UV aging. So just as the temperature sweep results, only the first
layer was effected by UV radiation without enough time. And for
10 h aging, the asphaltenes and IC was a little higher than 70A
and 90A at the second layer. Meanwhile, the asphaltenes and IC
were the same as the fresh asphalts until around 800 lm and
626 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627

Table 3
Components of peeled 70A after UV aging.

Samples Saturates (%) Aromatics (%) Resins(%) Asphaltenes(%) IC

70A 6.71% 49.29% 36.11% 7.89% 0.17
70A-UV 1 h (0–63 lm) 5.91% 46.85% 36.65% 10.59% 0.20
70A-UV 1 h (63 lm–154 lm) 6.52% 49.65% 36.62% 7.21% 0.16
70A-UV 2 h (0–106 lm) 5.39% 49.02% 33.61% 11.98% 0.21
70A-UV 2 h (106 lm–249 lm) 6.69% 50.57% 35.01% 7.73% 0.17
70A-UV 3 h (0–108 lm) 6.17% 45.64% 35.47% 12.72% 0.23
70A-UV 3 h (108 lm–224 lm) 6.74% 49.21% 36.26% 7.79% 0.17
70A-UV 4 h (0–106 lm) 6.91% 46.47% 33.51% 13.11% 0.25
70A-UV 4 h (106 lm–233 lm) 6.55% 50.09% 36.19% 7.17% 0.16
70A-UV 5 h (0–102 lm) 7.80% 49.04% 30.14% 13.02% 0.26
70A-UV 5 h (0–102 lm) 6.19% 50.45% 35.91% 7.45% 0.16
70A-UV 10 h (0–56 lm) 6.51% 46.77% 32.52% 14.20% 0.26
70A-UV 10 h (56 lm–127 lm) 6.90% 51.26% 32.78% 9.06% 0.19
70A-UV 10 h (210 lm–300 lm) 6.53% 48.86% 36.91% 7.70% 0.17
70A-UV 5d (0–82 lm) 6.42% 45.01% 28.17% 20.40% 0.37
70A-UV 5d (82 lm–187 lm) 6.05% 50.51% 30.69% 12.75% 0.23
70A-UV 5d (187 lm–267 lm) 6.73% 50.82% 33.50% 8.95% 0.19
70A-UV 5d (502 lm–622 lm) 6.36% 50.14% 35.26% 8.24% 0.17
70A-UV 5d (622 lm–744 lm) 6.34% 50.14% 35.53% 7.99% 0.17
70A-UV 10d (0–82 lm) 6.88% 40.24% 31.04% 21.84% 0.40
70A-UV 10d (82 lm–246 lm) 6.27% 50.98% 30.56% 12.19% 0.23
70A-UV 10d (246 lm–449 lm) 6.26% 51.78% 32.43% 9.53% 0.19
70A-UV 10d (589 lm–800 lm) 6.54% 50.34% 34.23% 8.89% 0.18
70A-UV 10d (1909 lm–2160 lm) 6.24% 49.64% 35.73% 8.39% 0.17
70A-UV 10d (2160 lm–2364 lm) 6.61% 49.89% 35.95% 7.55% 0.16

Table 4
Components of peeled 90A after UV aging.

Samples Saturates (%) Aromatics (%) Resins (%) Asphaltenes (%) IC

90 Asphalt 6.00% 58.65% 29.93% 5.42% 0.13
90-UV 1 h (0–59 lm) 6.10% 54.01% 24.03% 15.86% 0.28
90-UV 1 h (59 lm–139 lm) 6.98% 58.70% 28.94% 5.38% 0.14
90-UV 2 h (0–65 lm) 5.22% 55.06% 25.00% 14.72% 0.25
90-UV 2 h (65 lm–157 lm) 6.34% 59.06% 29.45% 5.15% 0.13
90-UV 3 h (0–63 lm) 5.57% 52.77% 26.01% 15.65% 0.27
90-UV 3 h (63 lm–146 lm) 6.60% 58.32% 29.25% 5.83% 0.14
90-UV 4 h (0–96 lm) 5.81% 51.41% 26.16% 16.62% 0.29
90-UV 4 h (96 lm–223 lm) 5.58% 57.99% 30.45% 5.98% 0.13
90-UV 5 h (0–67 lm) 6.53% 48.80% 28.80% 15.87% 0.29
90-UV 5 h (67 lm–143 lm) 6.88% 57.16% 29.38% 6.58% 0.16
90-UV 10 h (0–72 lm) 5.75% 48.75% 27.59% 17.91% 0.31
90-UV 10 h (72 lm–173 lm) 5.78% 59.05% 28.26% 6.91% 0.15
90-UV 10 h (173 lm–303 lm) 5.85% 58.80% 30.11% 5.24% 0.12
90-UV 5d (0–84 lm) 5.62% 45.23% 28.28% 20.87% 0.36
90-UV 5d (84 lm–191 lm) 5.24% 54.17% 28.85% 11.74% 0.20
90-UV 5d (191 lm–351 lm) 6.07% 51.73% 32.83% 9.37% 0.18
90-UV 5d (537 lm–799 lm) 6.77% 55.14% 31.70% 6.39% 0.15
90-UV 5d (799 lm–1014 lm) 6.33% 58.19% 29.75% 5.73% 0.14
90-UV 10d (0–77 lm) 6.64% 38.93% 32.02% 22.41% 0.41
90-UV 10d (77 lm–281 lm) 6.95% 51.63% 30.28% 11.14% 0.22
90-UV 10d (281 lm–487 lm) 5.76% 54.68% 31.51% 8.05% 0.16
90-UV 10d (487 lm–678 lm) 5.84% 55.52% 31.95% 6.69% 0.14
90-UV 10d (2067 lm–2215 lm) 6.19% 57.23% 30.72% 5.86% 0.14
90-UV 10d (2215 lm–2363 lm) 5.95% 58.39% 30.34% 5.32% 0.13

2200 lm for 5 d and 10 d UV aging respectively. And above the

depth of 800 lm and 2200 lm for 5 d and 10 d UV, the asphaltenes
and IC were reducing gradually from the first layer to the down lay-
ers, which proved that the diffusion process was happened during
the UV aging.

3.3. UV aging model of asphalts

From all the results of UTS, temperature sweep and components

test, the UV aging model could be built like Fig. 15. The surface
asphalt within 4.5 lm was the direct UV aging layer. And the layer
under 4.5 lm was the diffusion UV aging layer. In the direct UV
aging layer, the asphalts were excited to excite state or the cova- Fig. 15. The UV aging model of asphalts.
 W. Zeng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 160 (2018) 620–627
lently bonds were broken by UV radiation. Then condensation
reaction of excited asphalts was happened, leading to asphalt
aging. And it could be seen clearly from the components test that
the four components ratios (saturates, aromatics, resins and
asphaltenes) of the first asphalt layer were not the same as the
fresh asphalt. Also, the chemical structure and molecular weight
of resins and asphaltenes of direct UV aged asphalt were not the
same as the fresh asphalt. Thus, the diffusion process would hap-
pen within the difference of concentration gradient between UV
aged asphalt and fresh asphalt. That was to say, the different aged
components within 4.5 lm would be diffused to the diffusion
layer. And the diffusion depth was deeper with increasing UV aging
time.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, UTS tests and peeling method were used to inves-
tigated the UV aging depth of asphalts. The following conclusion
could be drawn as follows:
1. The UV radiation could only transmit around 4.5 lm thickness
of asphalt. So only the surface of asphalt could be UV aged
within 4.5 lm.
2. The temperature sweep and components test showed that only
the first layer (0–60 lm) was aged under 10 h aging time. And
the aging depth kept increasing to around 150 lm, 650 lm
and 2200 lm thickness for 10 h, 5 d and 10 d aging respectively.
3. The different components of surface aged asphalt were diffused
to the lower asphalt leading to the increasing complex modulus,
asphaltenes and IC under 60 lm part of asphalts.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Key Scien-
tific Apparatus Development Program from the Ministry of Science
and Technology of China (No. 2013YQ160501, URL: http://
www.most.gov.cn) and the International Science & Technology
Cooperation Program of China (No. 2013DFE83100, URL: http://
www.most.gov.cn).
627
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