Investigating the Self Healing Capability of Bituminous Binders

ABSTRACT In the Netherlands, the loss of stone at the surface of porous asphalt wearing courses (ravelling) results in a limited service life. Ravelling is caused by repeated traffic fatigue loadings and climatic influences. Bituminous materials exhibit a healing capability which is helpful to extend the service life. However, aging is expected to limit this positive effect. Therefore, upgrading the self-healing capability of the bitumen in time is of major importance. Inspired from mimicking nature, several chemical treatments can be used to improve the self healing capability of asphalt mixtures when the binder starts to harden due to aging, or when micro cracks have initiated. Possibilities of self-healing improvement are discussed in this paper. Preliminary results of measurements of the self healing capability of bituminous binders are also presented.