Coupling of oxidative ageing and moisture damage in asphalt mixtures

In this paper, a possible way to capture the combined effect of oxidative ageing and moisture damage on mixture performance has been proposed. The formulations that are needed for finite element (FE) modelling of oxygen and moisture diffusion process have been established. The proposed model should be able to link the in-time changes to the mastic as function of mixture morphology, ageing propensity and the moisture diffusion properties to the physical properties of the asphalt mixture due to the loss of adhesive and/or cohesive bonding. Such an FE model can help find the trends and relationships that can assist in the development of predictive pavement performance model. Also, from this, one can figure out the key parameters that are mainly responsible for ageing-moisture-induced premature damage of asphalt pavements.