Investigation of the Microcharacteristics of Asphalt Mastics under Dry–Wet and Freeze–Thaw Cycles in a Coastal Salt Environment

In the coastal areas of southeastern China, high temperatures and humidity in the summer and microfreezing in the winter, as well as a high concentration of salt spray in the environment, seriously deteriorate the durability of asphalt mixtures. Therefore, the microcharacteristics of asphalt mastics (asphalt mixed with mineral filler) under the effect of chlorine salt and “dry–wet and freeze–thaw” (DW-FT) cycles were investigated by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. Two factors, including asphalt mastic types (base and styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS)-modified mastics) and numbers of DW-FT cycles, were considered based on the natural environment. Regression functions were established to explore the relationship between the FTIR, GPC, and AFM indexes. The results indicate that there were no chemical reactions between the asphalt and filler because the infrared spectrum of the base and SBS-modified mastics were similar. With the increase of the salt “DW-FT” cycle numbers, the sulfoxide index and large molecular size ratios ([Formula: see text]) increased, and the surface roughness ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) of the morphology decreased, as illustrated by a flatting mastics surface phenomenon in the AFM test. Regression analysis confirmed that there was a high correlation between the FTIR, GPC, and AFM indexes, and formation of the bee structures was closely related to the long chain index. The SBS-modified mastics had a better antiaging performance with a lower increase in the sulfoxide index after the salt “DW-FT” cycles in the coastal environment.