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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 9515

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Peng Wang

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Guest Editor

School of Transportation Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250101, China
Interests: sustainable road materials; solid waste modified asphalt

Dr. Xianyong Ma

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Guest Editor

School of Transportation and Science Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
Interests: pavement mechanics and monitoring; smart pavement

Dr. Ruxin Jing

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Guest Editor

Department of Engineering Structure, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Interests: pavement durability; green and sustainable pavement materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Xiaorui Zhang

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Guest Editor

School of transportation engineering, Nanjing Technology University, Nanjing 211800, China
Interests: asphalt pavement structure; modified asphalt material

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is focused on sustainable road materials and pavement design, which promotes the sustainable development of road infrastructure construction. Here, sustainable road infrastructure construction practices are critical to reduce adverse impacts on the environment and prolong the life of pavements. Usually, these sustainable methods can be obtained in several ways: (1) through acquiring sustainable and environmentally friendly asphalt materials: using solid or liquid waste to modify asphalt, improve the durability of asphalt, or using alternative petroleum-based asphalt materials. Here, the key point is to balance the high performance of asphalt and low carbon emission with the environment, i.e., high waste content, better thermal storage stability, and good construction workability. (2) Recycling pavement materials: reclaimed asphalt pavement materials using low energy consumption yet obtaining high performance, i.e., warm recycled asphalt mixture, a large amount of hot in-plant reclaimed asphalt mixture and cold recycled pavement with foamed asphalt. (3) Sustainable construction and management: energy-saving paving technology such as warm-mix or cold-mix technologies, and carbon footprint analysis and life-cycle assessment studies that focus on dispute resolution and claim management practices related to sustainable construction. (4) Intelligent detection of pavement structure: the detection of pavement structure response by sensor, internal environment detection of pavement structure, road surface humidity and temperature detection and early warning. Here, the objective is to study the decay law of pavement structure and provide a safe and durable pavement service level. This Special Issue will provide a collection of noteworthy experimental and/or numerical investigations and case studies related to these sustainable bituminous materials and reduced greenhouse gas emission paving technologies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. It is not completely limited to the above topics, and anything related to Sustainable Materials can be.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Peng Wang
Dr. Xianyong Ma
Dr. Ruxin Jing
Prof. Dr. Xiaorui Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

solid-waste modified asphalt
bio-asphalt materials
low carbon emission asphalt materials
mechanism of asphalt aging and regeneration
warm recycled asphalt mixture technology
low carbon emission Asphalt Mixture Technology
performance evaluation and degradation characterization of road materials
intelligent detection of pavement structure
intelligent early warning technology for pavement environment
life-cycle assessment studies of pavement engineering

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 14294 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Water Stability and Moisture Damage Mechanism of a Steel Slag Porous Asphalt Mixture

by Xiaobing Chen, Miao Zhang, Jianming Yao, Xiaofei Zhang, Wei Wen, Jinhai Yin and Zhongshan Liang

Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 14958; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014958 - 17 Oct 2023

Viewed by 926

Abstract

A steel slag porous asphalt (SSPA) mixture, as the surfacing layer of permeable asphalt pavements, not only ensures the pavement surface drainage and noise reduction functions, but also improves the comprehensive utilization of steel slag resources and the inherent protection of the ecological environment. However, compared with ordinary asphalt mixtures, SSPA is more susceptible to water damage, such as scouring and frost swelling caused by external rainwater intrusion, resulting in the deterioration of the pavement performance. Therefore, it is of good practical imperative to study the water stability and moisture damage mechanism of SSPAs. In this study, the water stability of SSPA, that was subjected to a series of time–temperature H₂O-immersion schemes, was investigated using the pull-out and H₂O-immersion Marshall tests, whilst the microscopic mechanism of moisture damage was studied using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests. The corresponding results showed that: (a) with the increase in the H₂O immersion time, the water stability of SSPA first increased and then decreased; and (b) the water stability of SSPA was strong under medium-temperature H₂O-immersion or short-term high-temperature H₂O-immersion. SEM, on the other hand, showed that the transition zone spacing was closely related to the chemical adhesion mechanism between the asphalt and steel slag aggregate. Additionally, the FTIR analysis further showed that the steel slag asphalt mastic spectra had new absorption peaks at 3200~3750 cm⁻¹, inherently indicating the existence of chemical bonding between the asphalt and steel slag, with the XRD results showing that CaSO₄·2H₂O had a beneficial effect on the water stability of SSPA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Road Materials and Pavement Design)

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14 pages, 2373 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adhesive and Cohesive Cracking Analysis of Asphalt Mastics in Contact with Steel Substrates Using an Energy-Based Crack Initiation Criterion

by Zhiyang Liu, Haipeng Wang, Jiangcai Chen and Peng Cui

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4415; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054415 - 1 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1634

Abstract

Adhesive and cohesive properties play a vital role in the durability of asphalt mixtures. As a result of the lack of models characterizing adhesive and cohesive cracking, the occurrence of adhesive and cohesive failure has not been fully formulated by using an explicit mechanical approach. Strain energy density in intact mastics is transformed into adhesive and cohesive surface energies as cracks initiate. This study developed an energy-based crack initiation criterion based on the Griffith model and differentiated adhesive and cohesive cracking. The onset of cracking was identified by the deviation of the measured stress from the linear viscoelastic stress. The released strain energy at the crack initiation balanced the increase in surface energies, thus creating a new adhesive and cohesive surface. Several fracture parameters such as initial crack size, cracking stress, and tensile strength were proposed to analyze the effects of sample thickness, strain rate, temperature, and filler concentration in mastics. Results indicate that the adhesive energy, cohesive energy and strain energy density significantly depend on filler concentration in mastic and test temperature but is independent from sample thickness and strain rate. In particular, the variation of the strain energy density from 20 °C to 35 °C reaches 127.4%, and its decrease is up to 46.9% as the filler concentration in the mastic varies from 0 to 60%. The increase in the sample thickness from 160 μm to 1000 μm results in the 150.0% growth of the initial crack size and 74.4% reduction of the cracking stress. Therefore, increasing the adhesive and cohesive energy can essentially improve the toughness to resist the cracking, and decreasing the mastic thickness enhances the loading capacity. It provides a deep understanding of the mixture cracking from a perspective of adhesive and cohesive surface energies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Road Materials and Pavement Design)

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16 pages, 5318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Stiffening and Toughening of Asphalt Mastic Induced by Bitumen–Mineral Selective Molecular Adsorption and Nanostructural Reconstruction

by Zhiyang Liu, Haipeng Wang, Xiangbing Gong, Peng Cui and Hongrui Wei

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4398; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054398 - 1 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1430

Abstract

Asphalt mastic is the most important binder in asphalt mixtures and its rheology is inevitably influenced by the mineral aggregates. Due to the little consideration that has been paid to aggregates’ effects, the rheological properties of mastic films have not been accurately characterized for the present method. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the rheological characteristics of mastic affected by mineral aggregates and reveal its fundamental mechanism of interfacial interaction. The results suggest that the aggregates increased the stiffness and toughness of mastic within the linear and nonlinear viscoelastic regions. The mastic on limestone had a higher linear viscoelastic modulus than that on basalt below 35 °C, and its ratio reached up to 1.18. However, the modulus of the mastic on basalt surpassed that on limestone by over 50 °C, and the maximum ratio reached 2.17. The mastic in contact with the limestone had a higher failure strain and failure modulus than that in contact with the basalt, the ratios of which reached 1.60 and 1.32, respectively. The macrorheological characteristics are closely related to the nanostructures and intermolecular interactions of bitumen–mineral systems. The coexistence of a stable bitumen nanostructure and an adsorbed layer on the calcite substrate provided a strong bonding energy and high resistance to external shear deformation, leading to the high stiffness and toughness of the limestone. Abundant metal ions from augite and albite diffused into the bitumen layer and destroyed its nanostructure, decreasing the stability of the mastic–basalt interface system. The non-bond energy of bitumen-calcite was 14.15% higher than that of bitumen-albite, and the ratio of shear stress of the bitumen-calcite to the bitumen-albite reached up to 6.8. Therefore, the calcite in limestone reinforced the bitumen, and the augite and albite in basalt destroyed the bitumen colloidal structure. This provides a fundamental understanding of the rheological characterization of mastic on mineral aggregates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Road Materials and Pavement Design)

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19 pages, 6245 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research of the Luminance of Asphalt Pavements in Trafficked Areas

by Deimantė Lunkevičiūtė, Viktoras Vorobjovas, Pranciškus Vitta and Donatas Čygas

Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2826; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032826 - 3 Feb 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1642

Abstract

A key factor for safe and comfortable driving on roads are properly reflective and well visible pavement surfaces at night. The brightness of the road pavement surface depends on the amount of light falling on it and the reflection properties of the road pavement surface at any point. The luminance of the pavement depends on its physical condition, age and type of pavement, direction of illumination, and observation conditions. Different pavements can have different reflection characteristics that depend on the surface texture, materials, and binder (type and quantity). Experimental research was carried out on the carriageways and bicycle paths of Vilnius city streets, which differ in color and age. The analysis of the research results showed differences between the surface reflectance characteristics of these pavements depending on the color of the pavement, surface conditions, and age. The reflection properties of red asphalt pavements are better than black ones when the pavement surface is wet or moist. The reduced luminance coefficients of the carriageway (asphalt pavement installed in 2021) are about 12% lower than those of the carriageway pavement installed 10 years ago and about 60% lower for wet and moist pavements. The results obtained from the research are significant for street designers when choosing the type of pavement and designing street lighting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Road Materials and Pavement Design)

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15 pages, 3692 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Rheological Properties of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene-Based High-Viscosity Modified Asphalt Using Carbon Nanotubes

by Jiangcai Chen, Zhenfu Huang, Haipeng Wang, Zhenxing Yang and Tao Zhang

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010071 - 21 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1325

Abstract

Styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) is currently the most widely used asphalt modifier. However, high-SBS-concentration high-viscosity modified asphalts (HVMA) are characterized by poor flow and storage instability. To make up for the lack of performance of traditional SBS-HVMA, a nano-based high-viscosity composite modified asphalt with excellent performance was developed. Since carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nanomaterials, they are prone to agglomeration when added to the modified asphalt, and the dispersion effect is poor, which affects the modifier’s contribution rate. To better disperse CNTs in the modified asphalt, the nanomaterials were modified, and two new CNT additives were prepared by combining two polymers with CNTs. The appropriate ratio of these two new additives was selected to be further combined with SBS to obtain CNTs/SBS-HVMA. The flow characteristics and anti-aging properties of the three kinds of bitumen in different temperature ranges were studied by taking the common SBS-HVMA and Tafpack super (TPS) high-viscosity modified asphalts (TPS/SBS-HVMA) as comparison samples and by evaluating the road performance of a stone mastic asphalt (SMA-13) mixture. The storage stability, workable performance, rheological characteristics, and aging resistance of three high-viscosity asphalts were analyzed through a segregation test, dynamic viscosity analysis, Brookfield viscosity measurements, bending beam rheometer (BBR) tests, dynamic shear rheometer (DSR), and multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR) before and after short-term aging. The experimental results showed that CNT/SBS-HVMA exhibited good storage stability and workability. DSR measurements and other rheological tests revealed that TPS/SBS-HVMA had higher low-temperature flexibility than the other modified asphalts, while CNT/SBS-HVMA exhibited good high-temperature resistance, aging resistance, and deformation resistance. Through the verification of asphalt mixture performance, it was found that the high-temperature rutting resistance of CNTs/SBS-HVMA prepared by new CNT additives was 7% and 28% higher than those of SBS-HVMA and TPS/SBS-HVMA, respectively, but the low-temperature performance of CNT/SBS-HVMA was 5% lower than that of SBS-HVMA. This showed that CNT/SBS addition improved the high-temperature performance of the asphalt without a significant negative impact on the low-temperature performance of the asphalt. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Road Materials and Pavement Design)

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18 pages, 3539 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Using Phenol Formaldehyde Resin, Hexamethylenetetramine and Matrix Asphalt to Synthesize Hard-Grade Asphalts for High-Modulus Asphalt Concrete

by Quanping Xia, Yingyong Li, Haining Xu, Haoyuan Luo, Yangzezhi Zheng, Runming Zhao and Haichuan Xu

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15689; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315689 - 25 Nov 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1437

Abstract

Traditional hard-grade asphalts for high-modulus asphalt concrete (HMAC) are produced by using natural hard-grade asphalt to modify matrix asphalts. However, natural hard-grade asphalts are scarce and expensive. To find a sustainable alternative, this study presented a method to synthesize hard-grade asphalts using phenol formaldehyde resin (PFR), hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and matrix asphalts. Infrared radiation (IR) spectra analysis and fraction analysis for the modifiers and synthesize asphalts show that asphalt molecules can be cross-linked into larger polymeric groups by the thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin (TPFR) which is the reaction product of PFR and HMTA. This process increased the asphaltene and resin fraction in asphalt, thus transforming a matrix asphalt into hard grade. With the dosing combinations of 4% PFR/15~20% HMTA, 6% PFR/8~10% HMTA and 8% PFR/5~5.7% HMTA, dynamic modules of HMAC were 14,000~16,000 MPa, which satisfied the basic application requirements for HMAC. The rutting resistance of the new hard-grade asphalts with the above dosage combinations completely exceeds the traditional product using the Trinidad Lake asphalt as the raw material. Increasing the amount of PFR/HMTA can further improve the rutting resistance. However, to ensure the fatigue and cracking resistance of the HMAC can get a level like the traditional product, the dosages of HMTA should be controlled below 15%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Road Materials and Pavement Design)

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