Asphalt fumes released during pavement construction posed a threat to human health and environment. In this study, 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphorophenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) was used as a reactive fumes suppressant to reduce the asphalt fumes emission. The volatilization behavior of DOPO modified asphalt (DOPO-Asphalt) was investigated through thermogravimetric analysis, volatility test and thermal destruction gas chromatography mass spectrometry, and effect of DOPO on the chemical structure and composition of asphalt was explored through nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and asphalt component testing. The results indicated that 1.0 wt% DOPO reduced the fume content of control asphalt by 1.1% from 120 ℃ − 200 ℃ and the H₂S and VOC content by 96.9% and 84.2%, respectively, at 180 ℃. Moreover, 1.0 wt% DOPO reduced the content of aliphatic hydrocarbons, hydrocarbon derivatives, aromatics, and sulfides in control asphalt fumes by 86.8%, 89.7%, 90.7%, and 93.5%, respectively, which may be attributed to electrophilic and nucleophilic reactions between DOPO and volatile substances in asphalt. Chemical structure and composition changing of DOPO-Asphalt confirmed that P-H bond in DOPO was chemically reacted with components in asphalt, generating stable aromatic hydrocarbons and resins. The results provided a novel method for inhibiting the volatilization of harmful substances in asphalt.

In this study, a modified alkali activated slag system is designed by introducing additional calcium and aluminum containing phases in the binder, aiming at promote the formation of Friedel's salt (Fs) within the reaction products and therefore achieve a better chloride binding capacity. The effect of calcium and alumina contents on phase composition, chloride binding behavior, pore structure and mechanical properties of alkali activated slag are investigated. The results show that the addition of Ca(OH)₂ and nano γ-Al₂O₃ (CH and NA) results in the residual CH within the reaction products, but when in present of chloride, all residual CH transformed into Fs or other phases. The chloride binding capacity of the binder is obviously enhanced by CH and NA addition, owing to the increased ability to chemically bind chloride through Fs formation. There also exists an optimum Ca/Al ratio of the starting material regarding the chloride binding capacity. Adding CH coarsen the pore structure of the hydrated matrix by increase the amount of pores with the sizes larger than 200 nm, while NA exhibits a contrary effect. The chloride chemically binding behavior, namely the formation of Fs, slightly reduced the porosity of the binder. The strength results illustrate the negative effect of CH on compressive strength, and NA presents a positive effect, the modified binding system is able to provide a comparable mechanical property when compared with the reference alkali activated mixture.

This research aims to investigate the aging resistance of asphalts from different crude oils based on molecular structure and rheological properties. The average molecular structure of five types of asphalt from different crude oils were analyzed with the element analyzer, nuclear magnetic resonance, gel permeation chromatograph, and the improved Brown–Ladner method. The rheological properties of the asphalts were tested by the dynamic shear rheometer before and after laboratory aging. The antiaging properties of the asphalts were evaluated by the rheological aging index (RAI). The findings indicate that there were significant differences in the molecular structures among the five types of asphalt. The asphalt with the least hydrogen–carbon ratio (H/C), the largest aromatic carbon ratio (f_A), and the largest condensation index (CI) had the lowest rate of decline in rheological properties and therefore, the best antiaging performance. The H/C, f_A, and CI had good correlations with RAI, which indicated that it was feasible to use these molecular structure parameters to evaluate the differences in the aging resistance of various asphalts.

Self-healing technology, such as encapsulated rejuvenator, induction heating or combination of the above two methods, has been demonstrated to be a promising autonomic crack healing mechanism for porous asphalt. With the advantage of low cost, environmentally friendly and excellent performance, the calcium alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator showed promising effect to promote the crack healing in asphalt concrete. However, the healing effect of the calcium alginate capsules on the damage from fatigue loadings is still unknown, therefore became the research focus of this study. To this aim, the calcium alginate capsules were produced and incorporated into the porous asphalt (PA). A laboratory ageing process was performed on the PA to simulate the situation when asphalt pavement prone to cracking and a healing needs to take place. Afterwards, the four-point bending fatigue test (4PBF) was employed to characterize the fatigue resistance of the PA specimens. A 24-hour-rest period was carried out to allow the healing of fatigue damages. Additionally, a 4PBF testing and healing programme was carried out to evaluate the fatigue damage healing efficiency of the calcium alginate capsules healing system. It was found that the capsule healing mix showed a higher fatigue life than the reference mix, but the results were a bit scattered which might be caused by the capsule distribution which determines whether the healing takes place on the damage site or not.

During the service period, asphalt materials are affected by various natural factors, including heat, ultraviolet light, oxygen and moisture, etc., resulting in the reduction of pavement performance, the increase of pavement distress and shortening of service life. This study aims to investigate the aging performance of asphalt under multiple aging conditions of heat, UV and aqueous solution. Thermal-oxygen aging, UV aging and hydrostatic erosion tests were carried out sequentially on asphalt. The rheological properties, chemical structure and element composition of asphalt were characterized before and after aging, and the effect mechanism of multiple conditions was discussed. The results show that the multiple conditions of heat and UV can increase the rutting resistance and weaken the cracking resistance of asphalt. However, the effect degree of UV decreases gradually with the deepening of aging degree. Additionally, the effect of water on the physicochemical properties is less than that of UV; however, water can increase the sensitivity of physicochemical properties to UV. In summary, this study explored the short-term cycling effect of heat, light and water on asphalt and provided an idea for simulation test of asphalt under multiple aging condition.

Self-healing asphalt, which is designed to achieve autonomic damage repair in asphalt pavement, offers a great life-extension prospect and therefore not only reduces pavement maintenance costs but also saves energy and reduces CO₂ emissions. The combined asphalt self-healing system, incorporating both encapsulated rejuvenator and induction heating, can heal cracks with melted binder and aged binder rejuvenation, and the synergistic effect of the two technologies shows significant advantages in healing efficiency over the single self-healing method. This study explores the fatigue life extension prospect of the combined healing system in porous asphalt. To this aim, porous asphalt (PA) test specimens with various healing systems were prepared, including: (i) the capsule healing system, (ii) the induction healing system, (iii) the combined healing system and (iv) a reference system (without extrinsic healing). The fatigue properties of the PA samples were characterized by an indirect tensile fatigue test and a four-point bending fatigue test. Additionally, a 24-h rest period was designed to activate the built-in self-healing system(s) in the PA. Finally, a damaging and healing programme was employed to evaluate the fatigue damage healing efficiency of these systems. The results indicate that all these self-healing systems can extend the fatigue life of porous asphalt, while in the combined healing system, the gradual healing effect of the released rejuvenator from the capsules may contribute to a better induction healing effect in the damaging and healing cycles.

SBS-modified bitumen (SMB) is susceptible to aging, which seriously influences its service performance and life. In order to strengthen the anti-aging ability of SMB, triethoxyvinylsilane was designed to organically modify layered double hydroxides (LDHs) and was applied to modify SMB. The dispersibility and storage stability of LDHs in SMB were markedly enhanced after triethoxyvi-nylsilane organic modification, and the compatibility and storage stability of SBS in bitumen were simultaneously enhanced. Compared with SMB, the introduction of LDHs and organic LDHs (OLDHs) could ameliorate the high-temperature properties of SMB, and the thermostability of SBS in bitumen at a high temperature was also distinctly improved, especially OLDHs. After aging, due to the oxidation of molecular bitumen and the degradation of molecular SBS, SMB became hardened and brittle, and the rheological properties were significantly deteriorated, which had serious im-pacts on the performance of SMB. LDHs can mitigate the detriment of aging to bitumen and SBS, and the deterioration of the rheological properties of SMB is obviously alleviated. As a result of the better dispersibility and storage stability, OLDHs exerted superior reinforcement of the anti-aging ability of SMB.

Aqueous solution is one of the main factors of asphalt pavement disease. However, the physicochemical changes of asphalt are ambiguous during immersion in different aqueous solutions. This study evaluated the physicochemical properties of asphalt under the action of different aqueous solutions to further understand the mechanism of moisture erosion. The morphology, chemical structure and four components of asphalt were observed after immersion, while the pH value, total organic carbon (TOC) and characteristic functional groups of residual solutions were monitored. The test results showed that aqueous solution could change the bee structure on the asphalt surface and increased the mean roughness. The carbonyl index (I_C=O) and sulfoxide index (I_S=O) of asphalt increased with immersion time. And the asphaltenes of asphalt fluctuated and eventually increased during immersion. Solute could accelerate the erosion on asphalt through interaction, the degree of which increased in the order, Na₂SO₄ saline < NaCl saline < pH 3 acid < pH 11 alkali.

In this paper, a method to predict the healing effect of induction heating asphalt concrete at vertical depths was proposed and verified. At first, AH-70 asphalt concrete and SBS modified asphalt concrete of AC-13 gradation were designed and prepared. R-DT (Relationship of Depth and Temperature) was quantified through induction heating test. R-HT (Relationship of Healing rate and Temperature) was quantified through fracture-healing–fracture test and X-ray micro computed tomography test with oven heating. Then, linear regression was used to verify the rationality of R-HT compared with the pre-relationship in previous studies. Finally, R-DH (Relationship of Depth and Healing rate) was predicted by fitting approach. It was found that R-DT and R-HT presented significant linearity, the existence of which was independent from the type of asphalt materials. While, more sensitive of SBS modified asphalt concrete showed that the response to gradient characteristics of R-DT was related to the higher overall temperature. Additionally, R Square-values = 0.963 of linear regression proved the oven heating method was suitable for the quantification and prediction of gradient characteristics. Furthermore, the prediction of R-DH was obtained successfully, which established the continuous distribution of the healing effect at vertical depths and revealed the linear relationship of the continuous distribution.

Rejuvenator encapsulation technique showed great potential for extrinsic asphalt pavement damage healing. Once the capsules are embedded within asphalt pavement, the healing is activated on-demand via progressing microcrack. When the microcrack encounters the capsule, the fracture energy at the tip opens the capsule and releases the rejuvenator. Then the released rejuvenator wets the crack surfaces, diffuses into and softens the aged bitumen, allowing two broken edges to come in the contact, preventing further asphalt pavement deterioration. The quality and speed of the damage repair process strongly depend on the quality of rejuvenator, thus it is important to choose a proper rejuvenator with good abilities to restore the lost properties of bitumen from ageing and show a sustainable performance after healing. To this aim, three different rejuvenators were studied and ranked based on the performance of their rejuvenated bitumen, including physical properties, rheological properties, chemical properties and the performance after re-ageing. Furthermore, these rejuvenators were encapsulated in calcium alginate capsules and the tests on these capsules indicate the diameter, mechanical resistance and thermal stability of the capsules are influenced by the encapsulated rejuvenator. The findings will benefit the development of rejuvenator encapsulation technique and the optimization of the capsule healing system towards a better healing effect in asphalt pavement.

Self-healing asphalt, aimed to produce a sustainable asphalt pavement using green technology, has been studied in the past two decades. Technologies including encapsulated rejuvenator and induction heating have been proposed, demonstrated in the laboratory, and gradually evaluated in field application. This paper looks into the synergy effect of the above two technologies, where induction heating serves as the asphalt damage repair mechanism, requiring just 2 min heating time and encapsulated rejuvenator will replenish (rejuvenate) aged asphalt binder and reinstate bitumen's healing ability. Moreover, the increased temperature from induction heating could in turn accelerate the diffusion process of rejuvenator into aged bitumen. In this paper, the healing efficiency of the combined healing system was tested in comparison with autonomous asphalt healing system, induction healing system and capsule healing system. Porous asphalt concrete with various healing systems were prepared and a laboratory ageing procedure was followed to simulate the condition when healing was needed (after years of serving). X-ray computed tomography was employed to visualize the material composition and distribution inside of each healing systems. The properties of binder extracted from the porous asphalt samples were examined by dynamic shear rheometer. Indirect tensile strength and indirect tensile stiffness modulus tests were employed to characterize the mechanical properties of the porous asphalt samples with various healing systems. Finally, the cracking resistance of these healing systems was investigated by semi-circular bending test, and the healing efficiency was evaluated using a bending and healing programme. The results indicated that the combined healing system, with synergistic effects of aged binder rejuvenation and crack healing, shows a longer life extension prospect over the other healing systems.

It has been demonstrated that calcium alginate capsules can be used as an asphalt healing system by pre-placing rejuvenator (healing agent) into the asphalt mix and releasing the rejuvenator on demand (upon cracking). This healing mechanism relies on the properties of capsules which are determined by the capsule preparation process. In this study, to optimize the calcium alginate capsules, capsules are prepared using varying Alginate/Rejuvenator (A/R) ratios. Light microscope microscopy and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) are employed to characterize the morphology and microstructure of these capsules. Thermal stability and mechanical property are investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and compressive tests. The testing results indicate that higher alginate content results in smaller diameter and lower thermal resistance, but higher compressive strength. The optimum A/R ratio of calcium alginate capsules is found to be 30/70. To prove the effectiveness of the optimized capsules, the capsules are embedded in asphalt mortar beams and a bending and healing program is carried out. The effect of capsule shell material on the mechanical response of asphalt mixture is evaluated through three-point bending on the mortar beams embedded with blank capsules (without the healing agent). Aged mortar beams containing alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator demonstrate a higher strength recovery after bending tests, which indicates effective healing due to the release of the rejuvenators from the capsules.

Researchers have demonstrated that the rejuvenator encapsulation method is a promising autonomic self-healing approach for asphalt pavements, where by the self-healing system improves the healing capacity of an asphalt pavement mix. However, potentially high environmental risk via leaching of hazardous chemicals such as melamine formaldehyde renders the technology unsuitable for widespread use in road design. This paper explores the potential for the use of more environmentally friendly and economically viable rejuvenator encapsulation method, where the calcium alginate is used as rejuvenator encapsulation material. The capsule morphology and microstructure were studied using the Microscopy and X-ray tomography. Capsules thermal resistance and mechanical strength were investigated using the Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and micro-compressive tests. The results demonstrated that the capsules have sufficient thermal and mechanical strength to survive the asphalt production process. The healing efficiency of the system was evaluated by embedment of calcium-alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator in an asphalt mastic beams and subjected to monotonic three-point bend (3PB) loading and healing programme. The results illustrated that the calcium-alginate capsules encapsulating rejuvenator can significantly improve healing performance of the asphalt mastic mix.