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Development and Performance of Asphalt Mixtures to Address Environmental Challenges

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Civil Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 11422

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Luís Picado Santos

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: reclaimed asphalt pavement; circular economy; asphalt mixture; recycled concrete aggregate; electric arc furnace slag; pavement management systems; urban environment road safety; dynamic traffic management
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Dr. Arminda Almeida

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: transport infrastructures; asphalt mixtures; waste materials; circular economy; sustainability; warm-mix asphalt; testing and evaluation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The implications of climate change are challenging the sustainability of the asphalt pavement industry, like many others worldwide. Researchers and practitioners have been developing, testing, and applying innovative material and technologies in asphalt mixtures in recent years. For example, achieve decreasing of raw materials consumption (re-use, recycling); decreased greenhouse gas emissions (a greater variety of solutions with cold and warm mixtures); and increased service life of asphalt pavements (high-performance mixtures, self-healing). These asphalt mixtures should have a fit framework to be composed and validated by carrying out mechanical performance tests, life-cycle assessments, followed by trial sections and field applications.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences aims to collect the most recent scientific research and field applications regarding asphalt mixtures’ sustainability. Researchers and practitioners/professionals are invited to submit original research papers, review articles, and case studies. Aspects such as feasibility and possible drawbacks should be discussed from laboratory and field indications. Additionally, costs should be on the table.

Topics to address environmental challenges include, but are not limited to:

Development of asphalt mixtures (innovative materials and technologies; re-use/recycling);
Design of asphalt mixtures;
Mechanical performance of asphalt mixtures;
Field applications of asphalt mixtures;
Rehabilitation of asphalt layers (future recyclability);
Life-cycle analysis and sustainable rating systems.

Prof. Dr. Luís Picado Santos
Dr. Arminda Almeida
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

asphalt mixtures
sustainability
mechanical performance
construction feasibility
life-cycle analysis

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 3092 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Viability of Using High Amounts of Steel Slag Aggregates to Improve the Circularity and Performance of Asphalt Mixtures

by Caroline Moura, Lucas Nascimento, Carlos Loureiro, Mafalda Rodrigues, Joel Oliveira and Hugo Silva

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(1), 490; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12010490 - 04 Jan 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2304

Abstract

Steel slag is a byproduct generated as waste during the steelmaking process and can be considered a cost-effective and environmentally acceptable alternative to replace natural aggregates. Using steel slag aggregates (SSA) to produce asphalt mixtures promotes sustainability and circular economy principles by using an industrial byproduct as a raw material. Thus, this work mainly aims to design more sustainable asphalt mixtures with high amounts of SSA that fit the circular economy expectations. This work developed two asphalt mixtures with SSA for surface (AC 14 surf) and binder/base (AC 20 bin/base) courses. Initially, the excellent wearing and polishing resistance of SSA and their good affinity with bitumen demonstrated the potential of this byproduct to be used in asphalt mixtures. Then, when analyzing the influence of using two different SSA incorporation rates (50% and a percentage close to 100%) in both asphalt mixtures, it was concluded that the use of SSA should be limited to 75% to avoid excessive air void contents and durability problems. The importance of considering the different particle densities of SSA and natural aggregates was highlighted during the mix design by defining a relationship between an effective and equivalent binder content. Finally, the mechanical performance of AC 14 and AC 20 with 75% SSA incorporation was compared to identical conventional mixtures produced with natural granite aggregates. The results obtained showed that the asphalt mixtures with 75% SSA have some workability problems due to the rough and porous surface of SSA. However, they present an excellent water sensitivity and permanent deformation resistance, surpassing the performance of the conventional asphalt mixtures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Performance of Asphalt Mixtures to Address Environmental Challenges)

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19 pages, 6415 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Aging and Moisture Damage on Fatigue Cracking Properties in Asphalt Mixtures

by Sung Lin Yang, Cheolmin Baek and Hee Beom Park

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(22), 10543; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app112210543 - 09 Nov 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2051

Abstract

Recently, damage to asphalt pavements in South Korea has increased because of direct and indirect factors caused by abnormal climatic changes, such as torrential rains, prolonged heatwaves in summer, and heavy snowfall in winter. Additionally, the use of medium and heavy vehicles is also a contributing factor. Therefore, an experimental procedure to study the moisture damage and fracture properties of asphalt pavements considering the recent changes in precipitation properties, deterioration of road pavement, and traffic conditions in South Korea was developed in this study. Additionally, changes in material properties according to the indoor aging process and fatigue crack resistance were evaluated for hot mix and warm mix asphalt mixtures of the same grade and different initial production and construction temperatures. To evaluate the effect of aging and moisture damage on fatigue cracking, the experimental coefficient values of the predictive model were calculated for each condition. It was observed that the material properties of hot mix asphalt mixtures changed with an increase in aging and moisture damage. The service life of the pavement was reduced by approximately 40–80% owing to moisture damage, whereas aging had a greater effect on fatigue life as the service life increased. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Performance of Asphalt Mixtures to Address Environmental Challenges)

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22 pages, 28171 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Practice for the Application of Waste in Road Asphalt Pavements in an Eco-Friendly Way

by Francesca Russo, Cristina Oreto and Rosa Veropalumbo

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(19), 9268; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11199268 - 06 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2152

Abstract

The integration of circular economy principles in the design of road pavements raises the problem of obtaining high-performance asphalt mixtures for reduction of waste and environmental pollution compared to traditional solutions. In this study, the base and binder layers of road asphalt pavements were prepared by using reclaimed asphalt pavement and construction and demolition waste as coarse aggregates, while jet grouting waste and fly ash served as fillers. A leaching test was performed for the marginal materials, after which the engineering performances of the designed asphalt mixtures were investigated through laboratory tests. A life cycle assessment methodology was applied to determine the life cycle impacts of one cubic meter of each asphalt solution. Next, a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was performed for the solutions suggested for the binder and base layers. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the most suitable MCDA solutions by varying the weights for a total of 24 different weight configurations. The results of this work revealed that the solutions utilizing jet grouting waste (in particular, the hot asphalt mixture for the binder layer and cold asphalt mixture for the base layer) were preferred to other traditional and alternative solutions in most decision-making scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Performance of Asphalt Mixtures to Address Environmental Challenges)

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Other

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15 pages, 1281 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Asphalt Road Pavements to Address Climate Change Challenges—An Overview

by Arminda Almeida and Luís Picado-Santos

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(24), 12515; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app122412515 - 07 Dec 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4014

Abstract

Climate change is already happening. It is one of the significant challenges that the planet has to face. Asphalt road pavements cover a large area of the Earth’s surface; consequently, climate change challenges can significantly affect their performance and serviceability. Thus, pavement solutions have been developed to address the problem. This paper aims to present an overview of those topics to increase awareness among transportation engineers and practitioners. First, the most significant aspects of road asphalt pavements’ materials, design and condition are presented. Second, the most relevant climate change challenges for asphalt pavements are described. Then, different pavement solutions are presented. This overview concludes that there are pavement solutions able to address climate change. These depend on local climate conditions and should be incorporated into the decision-making process in planning, design and maintenance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development and Performance of Asphalt Mixtures to Address Environmental Challenges)

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