The Future of Self Healing Asphalt Pavement

Asphalt is known to be easy to be applied as pavements. Although it is easy, asphalt is not that durable, as it is susceptible to weariness and damages, for example potholes. Potholes occur when water separate the adhesion bond between the aggregate and bitumen. Recently, new breakthroughs are popping as scientists have found what could be the solution for potholes. They found out that by applying some certain additives, asphalt self healing properties can be improved greatly.

​The self healing properties can be greatly improved under certain temperatures. As for the additives itself, there are three known additives or methods that could be done: by incorporating nanoparticles, induction heating and rejuvenation. However, the most promising method is the induction heating pioneered by Minsk back in 1968. The induction heating is done by adding steel fibres in the asphalt mixture and when cracks are seen to be developing, electrical current is flowed into the asphalt which in result would “warm” the asphalt which ultimately will promotes the asphalt to fill the problematic cracks.

​As of now, this method has been experimented on public road pavements in Netherlands by Erik Schlangen, a professor from Delft University. Schlangen stated that even though by incorporating this method would cost 25% more than the conventional asphalt pavement, the life of the pavements would be doubled and could save millions in costs. Applying this method might be a good solution to minimize cost and reducing pollutions, as asphalt needs to be reapplied every time it shows damages.

Written by: Novandy

Resources:

Tabaković, A., & Schlangen, E. (2015). Self-healing technology for asphalt pavements. In Self-healing materials (pp. 285-306). Springer, Cham.