Healing of Porous Asphalt Concrete via Induction Heating

ABSTRACT The lifetime of porous asphalt pavement is only about 11 years. In this research, a porous asphalt concrete with long lifetime, based on a healing mechanism triggered by means of induction heating, is explained. Conductive fillers (steel fibers and steel wool) are added to porous asphalt concrete to enhance its electrical conductivity and induction heating is used to increase the temperature locally, just enough to increase the healing rate of asphalt concrete to heal the micro-cracks and to repair the bond between aggregates and binder. The main purposes of this research are to examine the electrical conductivity, particle loss resistance and induction heating speed of electrically conductive porous asphalt concrete and prove that damage in the material can be healed via induction heating. It is found that long fibers with small diameter are better than short fibers with bigger diameter to make porous asphalt concrete electrically conductive, induction heatable and have high particle loss resistance as well. Finally, it is also proved that damage in porous asphalt concrete can be healed via induction heating.