Two Ways of Closing Cracks on Asphalt Concrete Pavements: Microcapsules and Induction Heating

Abstract

It is well known that asphalt concrete is a self healing material: immediately after both faces of a crack are in contact, the diffusion of molecules from one face to the other starts. If there are no more loads, this process takes place until the crack has completely disappeared and the material has recovered its original resistance [1]. To increase this healing rate two methods are proposed. The first one is a passive self-healing mechanism. Embedded encapsulated chemicals are used in the binder. When microcracks start appearing in the binder due to the combination of ageing and accumulated damage, they break the capsules and the chemicals enter the binder by diffusion. These chemicals repair the material, decreasing the stiffness and increasing the healing rates of bitumen. The second approach makes use of an active self healing mechanism. Local heating inside the material is used to repair the binder and to improve the properties again. This is realized by adding conductive particles to the binder and using induction energy to increase the temperature. These methods are a fairly new concept in the asphalt industry.