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Self Healing Asphalt Pavement Btech Seminar Report
Self Healing Asphalt Pavement Btech Seminar Report
Prepared by
Kavya Shanu K
October 2018
Seminar Report on
Prepared by
Kavya Shanu K
October 2018
Albertian Institute of Science and Technology (AISAT) – Technical Campus
Archbishop Angel Mary Nagar
Cochin University P. O., Kochi – 6820 22
Certificate
This is to certify that this seminar report entitled “Self healing Asphalt
pavement” is a bonafide record of the seminar presented by Miss Kavya
Shanu K, Reg No AIK15CE036, during (October 2018) in partial
fulfilment of the requirement for the award of B.Tech degree in Civil
Engineering of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.
First of all I would like to thank god almighty for the divine grace bestowed on me to complete
this seminar successfully on time.
I express my sincere gratitude to Prof Philip Kurien, Principal, Albertian Institute of Science
and Technology (AISAT), Kochi for giving me this opportunity to present this seminar and for
the facilities offered throughout this Endeavour.
I am grateful to Prof Babu T Jose, Head, Department of Civil Engineering for permitting to
make use of the facilities available in the department to carry out the seminar successfully.
The main motivation behind this seminar is my seminar guide Asst. Prof Aswathy M Mohan,
Department of civil Engineering. I am unboundedly grateful to her for the timely corrections and
scholarly guidance, which made me confident enough to come out successfully.
I am deeply indebted to my parents and all my friends for their constant encouragement. They
were instrumental in keeping my spirit high and their association will be always remembered.
Kavya Shanu K
i
ABSTRACT
Today road designs are sophisticated engineering creations. Despite this, the materials used in
the asphalt mixes have remained largely unchanged for the past 100 years. The main ingredient
of a modern road is the bitumen. It is a co product of crude oil, whose production is in the
decline, meaning that its cost is on the rise and will simultaneously result in an increase in the
cost of asphalt pavements. Incorporating self healing technology into asphalt pavement design
presents a solution for some of the difficulties facing asphalt. A typical modern road system
comprises of double or triple asphalt layers with extended lifespan of 20 -40 years. Self healing
asphalt and its use in road paving is an innovation that could potentially double the road lifespan
to between 40 to 80 years and could also reduce significantly the maintenance activity. It also
has the potential to improve traffic flow, reduce demand for fresh aggregate, reduce Carbon
emissions and enhance road safety. This seminar presentation discusses the 3 different methods
of self healing asphalt pavement: by Rejuvenation, by Nano particles, and by Induction heating
method. The mechanism of achieving self healing properties by the 3 methods, their advantages
and disadvantages is covered in the seminar. A Case study on Self healing highway-A58 ,in
Netherlands is also included in the seminar.
ii
CONTENTS
Acknowledgement i
Abstract ii
Contents iii
List of figures iv
List of tables v
1. Introduction 1
1.1 General
3. Asphalt pavement 3
6 Nano particles 7
iii
7 Rejuvenator as self healing agent 9
7.1 Rejuvenators 9
10 Conclusions 18
11 References 20
iii
LIST OF FIGURES
3.1 Asphalt 4
6.2 Nanoparticles and their chemical structure 7
7.1 Rejuvenator being placed in travis county 10
7.2 SEM morphology of microcapsules containing rejuvenators 10
7.3 Microencapsulated rejuvenators 11
8.1 Melted bitumen in pavement 13
8.2 Depicting induction heating process in an asphalt pavement via moving 13
8.3 Self healing by induction 14
9.1 Self-healing asphalt is being trialled in the Netherlands 15
9.2 Schlangen’s self healing asphalt is being trialled on the A58 pavement 16
9.3 Annual savings v/s Averaged life span graph. 17
iv
LIST OF TABLES
v
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 General
India has one of the largest road networks in the world, aggregating to about 3.3 million
kilometres. The Indian road network consists of National Highways, State Highways,
District roads and Village roads. Besides these, there are International highways and the
Expressways, which are of recent development.
India has a long tradition of building roads since the times of Chandragupta Maurya
and Ashoka. The real progress was made during Mughal period, when Sher Shah Suri
constructed a road between Peshawar and Kolkata. It is now called Grand Trunk (G.T.)
Road. Most of the present trunk routes in India follow the Mughal routes.
The wide road network in India has made an enormous impact on trade, commerce,
lifestyle of citizens and connected all nooks and corners of the country. The importance
of a long lasting durable and reliable road system cannot be under estimated.
Maintaining the operational health of a road is imperative as to not disrupt
transportation and regular commute. Roads are subject to constant wear, tear, and stress.
They crack and deteriorate over time. As a result, modern roads have a lifetime
expectancy of 20-40 years, depending on the severity and kinds of conditions it is
exposed to. Once the damage begins to hinder functionality, the road has to be replaced.
As expected, replacing roads is an incredibly expensive and disruptive task. Not to
mention the various environmental harm it creates each time. However, scientists are
improving on new innovative techniques to significantly increase road durability. With a
few promising methods underway, scientists believe they can more than double the
lifespan of a road. If implemented, self-healing roads could significantly improve
economic and social aspects of every country.
The roads will require less servicing, increasing productivity while decreasing cost.
Self-healing roads far outperform conventional roadways; self-healing asphalt can
improve traffic flow, reduce maintenance activity, and can easily extend the life of a road
up to 80 years. Durability is experiencing a shift from the idea of minimizing damage to
the new era of self-healing capabilities.
Factors that cause asphalt concrete to deteriorate over time mostly fall into one of
three categories: construction quality, environmental considerations, and traffic loads.
Often, damage results from combinations of factors in all three categories.
Asphalt deterioration can include crocodile cracking, potholes, upheaval,
raveling, bleeding, rutting, shoving, stripping, and grade depressions. In cold
climates, frost heaves can crack asphalt even in one winter. Filling the cracks with
bitumen is a temporary fix, but only proper compaction and drainage can slow this
process.
The three primary steps in the autonomous asphalt self-healing process are as follows:
1. Wetting of the two faces of a micro-crack
2. Diffusion of molecules from one face to the other
3. Randomization of the diffused molecules to reach the level of strength of the original
material.
The self healing agents incorporated into the asphalt mix should be of sufficient strength,
proper size and shape, and protected from effects of abrasion to be useful as self healing
material in the time of crack development.
Figure 6.1: Nanoparticles and their chemical structure, Source:IJSRD,vol 5,issue 1,2017
7.1 Rejuvenators
During the service life of a pavement, the volatile components of bitumen evaporate,
and oxidation and polymerization can occur. As a result, the bitumen ages and loses some
of its viscoelastic properties.
A rejuvenator is a designed cationic emulsion containing maltenes and saturates. The
basic role of a rejuvenator is to diminish the solidness of the oxidized asphalt binder and
to flux the cover to broaden the asphalt life by modifying the properties of the asphalt
blend. Amid the administration life of an asphalt the unstable segments of bitumen
dissipate, and oxidation and polymerization can happen. Subsequently, the bitumen ages
and loses some of its viscoelastic properties. The viscoelastic condition of the asphalt
blend can be re-established through the expansion of either bitumen with a high
penetration value or a reviving operator, for example, a cationic Emulsion. Such cationic
emulsions are called rejuvenators.
7.2 Method of action
a. Restores proper balance among the five asphalt components.
b. Restores flexibility and ductility to the top portion of the old, brittle
pavement.
The rejuvenators can be applied directly to the surface layer of pavements when the
cracks are in the initial stages. This will prevent further crack propagation and pavement
failure. By applying the rejuvenator to the surface course, the lifespan of the asphalt
pavement can be extended by several years; however, this only applies to the top few
centimetres of the asphalt pavement.
The rejuvenators are included into the asphalt mix via asphalt mix to restore the original
binder properties. The principle behind this approach is that when micro-cracks begin to
form within the pavement system, they encounter a capsule in the propagation path. The
fracture energy at the tip of the crack opens the capsule and releases the healing agent.
The healing agent then mixes with the asphalt binder to seal the crack, thus preventing
further propagation. The process prevents the formation of micro-cracks within the
pavement mix and prevents complete failure of the pavement system.
Figure 8.2: Depicting induction heating process in an asphalt pavement via moving
Source:Heijmans, Introns and TU Delfit website trucks
Although its ageing effect can be compensated for by the healing effect, a problem
that has not been addressed by research is the loss of conductivity via oxidation
(corrosion) of the steel wool and fibers. However, this should not be an insurmountable
problem, as steel could be replaced by carbon fibers and/or conductive polymer.
Besides these ‘direct’ savings, self healing asphalt yields indirect advantages, for
instance less traffic jams due to road maintenance and hence less social traffic jam costs.
Direct traffic jam costs, expressed as capitalised hours of time loss of waiting people and
their alternative routes, amounted in 2008 in the Netherlands to 2.8 billion euros, of
which ‘only’ 4 per cent or about 110 million euros were caused by road maintenance. It
would be reasonable to assume that the number of traffic jams decreases proportionally
with the length of the maintenance period. That is as the maintenance activity increases
the traffic jam decreases. Therefore, a lifetime extension for self healing asphalt with 25
Department of Civil Engineering 16 AISAT
per cent from 12 years on average to 15 years would render 22 million euros less traffic
jam costs. At a lifetime extension of 50 per cent - from 12 years on average to 18 years -
the social traffic jam costs would be 37 million euros less. Again, here the additional
costs for applying self healing asphalt are not taken into account. The combined annual
savings related to major repairs and social traffic jam costs are approx. 65 million euros
at a life span extension of 25 per cent, and over 100 million euros at a life span extension
of 50 per cent, for the entire Porous asphalt pavement (PAC) area in the Netherlands.
If the difference in cost price between ‘standard PAC’ and self-healing PAC is only
in the cost price of the modified bitumen, then a 100 per cent (or 200 per cent) higher
bitumen price results in approx. 8 million (or 16 million) euros additional annual costs.
So even if the price of self-healing bitumen will be twice as high as for standard bitumen,
The Netherlands can save approx. 90 million euros annually by investing in self-healing
asphalt with a 50 per cent extended life span compared to traditional PAC.
Only when the cost price of self-healing bitumen will be more than 13 times the
price of standard bitumen, self-healing asphalt will be less attractive from a financial
point of view. Not only society would prefer to have this new type of asphalt., also the
road maintenance authority and road contractors with maintenance agreements will be
able to plan much better using this new material.
Figure 9.3: Annual savings v/s Averaged life span graph. Source: www.betase.nl