Self‐Healing Asphalt Review: From Idea to Practice

Abstract

In recent decades, researchers have revealed the great healing potential of asphalt and proposed various novel methods to inspire and improve the self‐healing capacity of asphalt aimed to prolong the service life of asphalt pavement. In this review, up to date research progresses in induction healing and embedded rejuvenator encapsulation are presented, respectively. Meanwhile, the trial section applications of induction healing and capsule healing are highlighted, which show promising results. Finally, some recommendations for the future development of self‐healing asphalt are proposed.

Optimization of the Calcium Alginate Capsules for Self-Healing Asphalt

“…During its service life, the asphalt concrete ages due to environmental effects including oxidation, UV light irradiation and moisture damage, which make it become stiffer with time and gradually lose its original properties [1][2][3][4]. As a result, ageing of asphalt leads to an increase of stiffness and brittleness which make it prone to premature failures like cracking and raveling [5].…”

“…Although the phenomenon of ageing deteriorates the performance of asphalt pavement, an asphalt rejuvenator, including industrial rejuvenator and oil [5,6], can be used to reverse this process by restoring the lost properties of aged asphalt, i.e., stiffness and self-healing capacity [7]. The asphalt rejuvenator has been successfully used in asphalt recycling [8] and surface course rejuvenation [9].…”

“…As an emerging self-healing technology in asphalt pavement, the capsule healing method provides a solution to the ageing problem, thus prolong the service life of asphalt pavement [5]. Researchers have shown that the inclusion of encapsulated asphalt rejuvenator in an asphalt mix is a promising method to improve the self-healing capacity in asphalt pavement [5].…”

“…As an emerging self-healing technology in asphalt pavement, the capsule healing method provides a solution to the ageing problem, thus prolong the service life of asphalt pavement [5]. Researchers have shown that the inclusion of encapsulated asphalt rejuvenator in an asphalt mix is a promising method to improve the self-healing capacity in asphalt pavement [5]. The intention of the embedded capsules is to deliver encapsulated healing agent into the asphalt pavement, when a crack occurs, the healing agent is released into the microcrack, wets the crack surfaces, diffuses into the aged bitumen, and softens the aged binder, allowing it to flow and eventually heal the crack [10].…”

Self‐Healing Materials are Coming of Age

“…Collage of self‐healing materials addressed in the current Special Issue. Reproduced with permission …”