Oxidative aging of asphalt is a primary cause of binder hardening in paveme
nts, thus contributing to various forms of pavement failures. An essential
element of predicting long-term pavement performance is to understand binde
r oxidative aging and its effect on engineering properties. Five asphalt bi
nders were evaluated relative to their changes in engineering and chemical
properties in pavement service. Laboratory rolling thin-film oven test (RTF
OT) and pressure aging vessel (PAV) test were conducted to simulate the in-
situ pavement aging. In addition, a cest road was constructed for this stud
y to investigate the real aging process in the field. Comparable data were
shown between field binders and laboratory binders aged at temperature 60 d
egreesC under pressure 20 kg/cm(2). The aging time of asphalts in PAV depen
ded on how long pavements were used in the field. This paper was to determi
ne the temperature and pressure used for PAV to simulate aging condition in
the field. A good correlation between field-service and laboratory aging d
uring test road project was found. An aging model was proposed to predict t
he changes in paving binder's properties during field age hardening. Result
s were shown to give a close fit with experimental data from both laborator
y and field aging tests. This model allowed highway engineers to quantify t
wo essential characteristics of binder aging: the aging rate and the ultima
te degree of changes in binder properties due to aging.