Authors: Nishant Kumar, Jitendra Chauhan
Abstract: Asphalt binder aging significantly affects the long-term performance and durability of flexible pavements, leading to various pavement distresses such as cracking, rutting, and raveling. Accurate prediction of asphalt binder aging and associated pavement deterioration is essential for effective pavement design, maintenance planning, and lifecycle cost management. In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have emerged as powerful tools for modeling complex, nonlinear relationships among environmental factors, material properties, traffic loading, and aging characteristics of asphalt binders. This work explores the application of Artificial Intelligence–based methods for predicting asphalt binder aging and pavement distress. Various AI techniques such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), and hybrid optimization models are examined in terms of their ability to analyze large datasets and provide accurate predictions. The study existing literature on AI-driven predictive models that incorporate factors such as temperature variation, oxidation processes, traffic load, binder composition, and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the paper highlights the advantages of AI models over traditional empirical and mechanistic methods, including improved prediction accuracy, adaptive learning capability, and efficient data-driven decision-making. The work also identifies current research gaps, challenges in data availability, and opportunities for integrating AI with mechanistic–empirical pavement design approaches. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in AI-based prediction of asphalt binder aging and pavement distress, emphasizing its potential to enhance pavement performance evaluation, optimize maintenance strategies, and support sustainable infrastructure development.
