Although electrokinetic phenomena were relatively recently discovered, they have come a long way and even dominate certain sectors. However, they have rarely been utilized in the discipline of civil engineering. While the limited civil engineering applications are accompanied by inherent uncertainty and changing field conditions, laboratory applications that mitigate those challenges often suffer from conditions that differ substantially from real life engineering applications, thus making questionable the validity of extrapolating results from the laboratory to on-site projects. The work presented here aims to bridge that gap by conducting a laboratory experiment that reproduces - as closely as possible - the conditions that can be expected in civil engineering projects. To that end an experimental set-up is constructed that allows for electrokinetic treatment of clay soil and even though it facilitates constant monitoring of the desired parameters, it does not deviate substantially from how electrokinetic treatment would look like in an actual project.

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This research explores the incentives for replacing steel fibers with aluminum fibers in fiber modified bituminous mixes. In this work the focus is on fiber modified bituminous mixes especially designed for induction heating. Inductive fibers are heated up because eddy currents are generated - according to Joule’s law - when alternating magnetic field is applied by electro-magnetic induction coil. Aluminum fiber-type particles are proposed as an alternative solution for developing corrosion resistant and lightweight bituminous mixes capable to be induced by electro-magnetic fields. In another publication (Pavlatos et al., Inductive bituminous mortar with steel and aluminum fibers, Advances in Materials and Pavement Performance Prediction, Submitted, 2018), a finite element three-dimensional model is developed in order to determine the effective electrical conductivity of steel and aluminum fiber modified bituminous mortar, as well as to show the potential utilization of alternative particles for developing multi-functional paving materials with improved properties.@en

This research presents the implementation of a finite element model analysis for assessing the potential of utilizing alternative fibers for the development of inductive bituminous mixes with lower total weight, higher resistance against corrosion, and sufficient induction heating efficiency. Aluminum fibers are selected as the metallic modifier in bituminous mixes against the commonly applied steel fibers in order to develop inductive materials. The main reasons for applying aluminum fibers in bituminous mixes are presented in (Pavlatos et al., Framework for replacing steel with aluminum fibers in bituminous mixes, Advances in Materials and Pavement Performance Prediction, Submitted, 2018). A real fiber modified bituminous specimen is reconstructed by means of CT scans and its effective electrical conductivity is calculated assuming steel and aluminum fibers. Since steel fiber modified bituminous mixes have already been used successfully for induction heating, the aim of this work is to demonstrate that aluminum fiber modified bituminous mixes exhibit equally good properties as the steel fiber modified bituminous mixes for induction heating.@en

Improving the properties of natural subgrade under existing pavements is an expensive and often challenging process. Traditional soil stabilization requires removal of existing pavement, extraction of weak soil, mixing the soil with different stabilizers, placing the improved soil to its location and repaving. This paper establishes the framework for in situ stabilization of weak and fine soils by using electrokinetic principles to drive the stabilizing substances in the soil matrix. The stabilizers are introduced at the side of the pavement and under the presence of an external electric field they travel through the weak fine soil. A 2D model for a 4-meter wide pavement is examined in this paper. The results suggest that the stabilizer can be transported effectively in the weak soil within reasonable time. A short overview of the experimental setup that is currently being developed to test the proposed technique is also presented in this paper.@en