SELF-HEALING PAVEMENTS: A REVOLUTION IN PAVEMENT MATERIALS (Paper 739)

Self-repairing is an intrinsic property of bitumen. When it is subjected to a rest period, bituminous material has the potential to restore its stiffness and strength by closing the micro cracks that occur when the pavement is subjected to traffic loads. It requires adequate amount of rest time to undergo the complete process which is practically not possible. The aim of this work is to go beyond the scope of classical review which almost entirely focused only onto conventional and passive systems. Therefore, by extensive literature review specific choices from the existing literature have been made for this analysis, which either show new principles or contribute to this aim without repeating already existing systems in a similar or slightly different way. The phenomenon of healing and especially self-heal pavements is understood, together with the principal design features and requirements that enable a self-repair to take place. There are three main approaches for self-healing of pavements: Use of Nanoparticles, use of rejuvenators like microcapsules, induction heating of bitumen containing conductive fiber. Incorporating self-healing technology into flexible pavement design presents a solution for some of the major difficulties like limited natural resources, increase in maintenance costs etc. This technology helps in conservation of material resources, since the usual over-design of materials is no longer required. Repair will be addressed at the very position of first appearance of damage, minimizing the need to reconstruction and overlaying of pavements. The development of such technologies for bituminous pavement will truly revolutionize the bituminous pavement design.