Advances in Road Pavements

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 3701

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: pavement design; construction materials; surface treatments; pavement behavior modelling; urban pavements; pavement sustainability; pavement monitoring; pavement maintenance and rehabilitation

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy
Interests: pavement design; construction materials; surface treatments; pavement behavior modelling; urban pavements; pavement sustainability; pavement monitoring; pavement maintenance and rehabilitation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Roads play a crucial role in the development of countries and the quality life of their citizens, which is why this Special Issue aims to explore recent advances in road pavement research, addressing key challenges and opportunities in the field. Despite being a fundamental part of transportation infrastructures, road pavements face ongoing challenges related to durability, sustainability, and performance under varying environmental conditions. This Special Issue seeks to address these challenges by showcasing innovative research and technological advancements in road pavements science and engineering.

We invite original contributions describing new research, case studies, projects, reviews and state-of-the-art discussions on the following and related topics:

  • Advancements in pavement design;
  • Novel construction methods and materials;
  • Pavement-related safety issues;
  • Innovative surface treatments;
  • Pavement behavior modelling and simulation;
  • New mobility challenges in urban pavement design;
  • Pavement surface characteristics and ride quality;
  • Sustainable approaches in pavement design;
  • Pavement monitoring methods;
  • New maintenance and rehabilitation techniques and technologies.

This Special Issue will appeal to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of civil engineering, materials science, transportation engineering, and infrastructure management. The insights presented in this Special Issue will be valuable for professionals involved in the design, construction, and maintenance of asphalt pavements.

Dr. Emanuele Toraldo
Dr. Misagh Ketabdari
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pavement design
  • construction materials and methods
  • pavement related safety issues
  • surface treatments
  • pavement behavior modelling
  • urban pavements
  • pavement sustainability
  • pavement surface characteristics and ride quality
  • pavement monitoring, maintenance and rehabilitation
  • laboratory and field performance tests

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 5914 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Laboratory Investigation of Tack Coats as Bituminous Pavement Interlayer
by Alessandro Steffanoni, Michel Di Tommaso, Vito Giovanni Gallo, Giuseppe Macaluso, Carmine Rizzato, Misagh Ketabdari and Emanuele Toraldo
Buildings 2024, 14(8), 2358; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14082358 - 31 Jul 2024
Viewed by 673
Abstract
The adhesive properties of tack coats between asphalt pavement layers are crucial for the pavement’s structural behavior. This study first involved numerical analyses to compare stress patterns, deformations, and displacements in the pavement structure under various geometric and mechanical conditions. A rational calculation [...] Read more.
The adhesive properties of tack coats between asphalt pavement layers are crucial for the pavement’s structural behavior. This study first involved numerical analyses to compare stress patterns, deformations, and displacements in the pavement structure under various geometric and mechanical conditions. A rational calculation method based on the theory of elastic multilayer systems was used to quantify the impact of layer properties such as thickness, stiffness modulus, and Poisson’s ratio on interlayer bonding. Three bonding conditions—Full Friction, Partial Bonding, and Full Debonding—were analyzed to understand the tack coat’s effect between the top two layers. The second phase involved characterizing the mechanical behavior of the interface through shear strength tests (Leutner shear test) on both laboratory-prepared specimens and samples from a 10-year-old highway. Specimens were prepared using a Roller Compactor and tested under different interface conditions: hot-on-hot (H/H), residual bitumen 200 g/m2 (RB 200), and residual bitumen 400 g/m2 (RB 400). The tests examined the bonding effects in terms of tangential force and shear displacement at failure, as well as the impact of vehicular traffic on rutting and fatigue failure. Finally, this study investigated the long-term aging effects of the binder on interlayer bonding and sought to correlate the results of numerical calculations with those of the laboratory tests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Road Pavements)
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21 pages, 9241 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Interlayer Reinforcement Effectiveness in Road Pavement Rehabilitation Using FEM Modeling and Fracture Mechanics Analysis
by Arianna Antoniazzi, Gianluca Ravizzoni, Cecilia Schiavone, Maurizio Crispino and Emanuele Toraldo
Buildings 2024, 14(8), 2264; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14082264 - 23 Jul 2024
Viewed by 858
Abstract
In this paper, the effectiveness of reinforcements for flexible pavements is evaluated through an analysis of reflective cracking. Different stiffness and thickness reinforcements are considered for the rehabilitation of an already cracked pavement. The effect of the reinforcement is assessed from two different [...] Read more.
In this paper, the effectiveness of reinforcements for flexible pavements is evaluated through an analysis of reflective cracking. Different stiffness and thickness reinforcements are considered for the rehabilitation of an already cracked pavement. The effect of the reinforcement is assessed from two different perspectives: (i) the ability to reduce stresses in the rehabilitated pavement layers, and (ii) the capacity to mitigate the crack propagation from deeper layers. A finite element model (FEM) is adopted to study the stress and strain state of the pavement layers. The pavement model has been properly validated, transitioning from a simply supported beam scheme to an elastic multilayer model. In addition, to represent crack propagation, fracture evolution is analyzed using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFMs) and Paris’ law. The effect of different reinforcements on the pavement is then simulated. The results show that the reinforcement performance is strictly dependent on the interlayer thickness and stiffness. In particular, high stiffness reinforcements (geomembranes) show increasing effectiveness with stiffness, both in terms of reflective cracking and stress reduction. Conversely, low stiffness reinforcements (SAMIs) show a variable trend with the stiffness modulus. In fact, extremely low stiffness is effective in slowing down crack propagation but is detrimental to the wearing course’s stress condition. However, as the stiffness increases, the likelihood of cracking in the wearing course decreases, though only a small beneficial effect is registered for crack propagation in the base layer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Road Pavements)
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17 pages, 7703 KiB  
Article
Effects of Wetting–Drying Cycles on the Macro and Micro Properties of the Cement-Stabilized Soil with Curing Agent
by Wenjun Hu, Kun Li, Wenhao Yin, Han Zhang, Yi Xue, Yutong Han and Pingyun Liu
Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1716; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061716 - 7 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1005
Abstract
Cement-stabilized soil is a commonly used pavement base/bottom base material. Adding a suitable curing agent to cement-stabilized soil can effectively reduce the dosage of cement, meet the strength requirements, and also greatly improve its water stability. In this paper, three kinds of cement [...] Read more.
Cement-stabilized soil is a commonly used pavement base/bottom base material. Adding a suitable curing agent to cement-stabilized soil can effectively reduce the dosage of cement, meet the strength requirements, and also greatly improve its water stability. In this paper, three kinds of cement dosage (6%, 8%, and 10%) of cement-stabilized soil were selected to add a 0.04% organic liquid curing agent, and then compared with high-dose cement (10% and 12%)-stabilized soil. The influence of wetting–drying cycles on the mechanical properties of the five stabilized soils was discussed. The mineral composition of cement-stabilized soils before and after the addition of a curing agent was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the microscopic morphology of 10% cement-stabilized soils with a curing agent was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The macroscopic test shows that the unconfined compressive strength of solidified cement-stabilized soil can be divided into three stages with the increase in the times of the wetting–drying cycles, which are the rapid decay stage, stable enhancement stage, and stable decay stage. The wetting–drying stability coefficient first increases, and then decreases with the increase in the times of the wetting–drying cycles. The microscopic test shows that the addition of a curing agent can enhance the content of hydration products in the cement-stabilized soil specimen; at the curing age of 28 d, with the increase in the times of the wet–dry cycles, the structure of the solidified cement-stabilized soil gradually broke down. The surface porosity P and pore diameter d showed an overall upward trend but decreased at the fifth wetting–drying cycle. The pore orientation weakened. The results show that the resistance of cement-stabilized soil with a curing agent is obviously better than that of cement-stabilized soil under wet–dry conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Road Pavements)
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15 pages, 5967 KiB  
Article
Advanced Recycling of Modified EDPM Rubber in Bituminous Asphalt Paving
by Daniela Laura Buruiana, Lucian Puiu Georgescu, Gabriel Bogdan Carp and Viorica Ghisman
Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1618; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061618 - 1 Jun 2024
Viewed by 569
Abstract
One of the environmental problems worldwide is the enormous number of surgical masks used during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the measures imposed by the World Health Organization on the mandatory use of masks in public spaces. The current study is a potential [...] Read more.
One of the environmental problems worldwide is the enormous number of surgical masks used during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the measures imposed by the World Health Organization on the mandatory use of masks in public spaces. The current study is a potential circular economy approach to recycling the surgical masks discarded into the environment during the COVID-19 pandemic for use in bituminous asphalt pavement. FTIR analysis showed that the surgical masks used were made from ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber modified with polypropylene. The effects of the addition of surgical masks in bituminous asphalt on the performance of the base course were demonstrated in this study. The morphology and elemental composition of the bituminous asphalt pavement samples with two ratios of surgical mask composition were investigated by SEM-EDX and the performance of the modified bituminous asphalt pavement was determined by Marshall stability, flow rate, solid–liquid ratio, apparent density, and water absorption. The study refers to the technological innovation of using surgical masks in the formulation of AB 31.5 bituminous asphalt base course, which brings tremendous benefits to the environment by reducing the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Road Pavements)
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