Laboratory Evaluation of Ultraviolet Radiation for Asphalt Pavement Performance in Desert Regions

There is very strong ultraviolet radiation in western desert of China. In order to study the behavior of ultraviolet aging for bitumen, three type of bitumen were aged in the laboratory. The ultraviolet aging and thermal aging under the condition of artificial intensive ultraviolet radiation environment test and the rolling thin-film oven test (RTFOT) were comparative investigated. The results showed that the impact of ultraviolet aging manifests longer time than that of thermal aging for bitumen.