Do AR pavements cool faster than conventional pavements?
AR pavements are more porous. Because of this and the insulating effects of the rubber crumbs, the pavement doesn’t retain heat as much as conventional asphalt. AR pavements are cooler at night, but not during the day. The cool pavement mechanism is based on the idea that by increasing the reflectance of the pavement surface, less sunlight will be absorbed, lowering the daytime temperature of the pavement. In case of hot climate places, where icing is not an issue light-colored aggregate (e.g.,limestone) is suggested to be applied, which appear very light in color. New asphalt pavements, with a black binder, are generally much less reflective. So not really the AR, but the aggregates are behind this phenomena.
