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Materials
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Materials, Structures and Designs for Durable Roads
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Materials, Structures and Designs for Durable Roads

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 3634

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Xu Yang

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Guest Editor
1. School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an, China
2. Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Interests: construction materials; paving materials; bituminous materials; cement; composite materials; thermal plastic materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Lingyun You

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Interests: pavement mechanics; sustainable road materials; foamed and emulsified asphalt; analytical solution; finite element approach; molecular dynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chonghui Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
Interests: pavement engineering; discrete element modelling (DEM); multiscale modelling; pavement compaction; pavement functional behavior
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Mohd Rosli Hainin

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Geotechnics & Transportation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Interests: highway engineering; pavement engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The smartness and resilience of infrastructure are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. As important components of infrastructure, roads play an important role in achieving the goal of the entire infrastructure system. The large-scale construction of transportation infrastructure has increased the demand for its sustainability. Currently, road construction bears important responsibilities for the use of natural resources and energy, the generation of waste, the emission of greenhouse gases, and the intensification of urban heat island effects. At the same time, the aging and wear phenomenon of road materials will lead to a reduction in service life and further consumption of resources and energy. To reduce the negative effects, road structures need to be smarter and more durable. For example, as asphalt mixture is the most commonly used road material, improving the durability of asphalt pavement is an important goal in this regard. To obtain this enhanced durability and sustainability, in the past few decades, certain smart admixtures have been developed to make this material more intelligent. Thermochromic materials have been used in asphalt due to the advantages of the dynamic conversion of optical and thermal properties, which reversibly change color according to temperature, thereby dynamically adjusting the reflectivity of the asphalt to solar radiation. Ultraviolet-blocking materials can enhance the anti-ultraviolet aging ability of asphalt. Induction heating is used to enhance the engineering healing ability of asphalt mixtures. Warm and cold mixing technologies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby saving energy. Recycling technology and regeneration technology play an important role in realizing long-life pavement structures. In this Special Issue, the latest developments in these smart and durable road surfaces are discussed. The compatibility of smart admixtures with traditional pavement materials and their influence on the properties and structure of pavement materials are considered. It is also critical to simulate the long-life structure formation, the activation of intelligent performance, the service life in a specific environment, and the environmental impact of new durable pavement structures.

The purpose of this Special Issue of Materials is to collect manuscripts on novel materials and innovative technologies for smart and resilient roads. The topics cover, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Advanced functional materials to improve road resilience;
  • Intelligent materials that enhance the road environment (smart roads);
  • Innovative computational methods to solve road problems;
  • High-performance and recycled road materials to enhance durability and sustainability;
  • Incorporation of smart road principles into the design of cities;
  • Advanced technologies for road construction and maintenance.

Prof. Dr. Xu Yang
Dr. Lingyun You
Dr. Chonghui Wang
Prof. Dr. Mohd Rosli Hainin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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

  • transportation infrastructures
  • sustainable materials
  • durable structures
  • smart and resilient roads
  • multiscale modeling
  • road resilience

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 12274 KiB  
Article
3D Reconstruction and Large-Scale Detection of Roads Based on UAV Imagery
by Xiang Zhang, Shuwei Cheng, Pu’an Wang, Hao Zheng, Xu Yang and Yaolin Guo
Materials 2025, 18(9), 2133; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18092133 - 6 May 2025
Viewed by 233
Abstract
Accurate and efficient detection of road damage is crucial in traffic safety and maintenance management. Traditional road detection methods have problems such as low efficiency and insufficient accuracy, making it difficult to meet the needs of large-scale road health assessments. With the development [...] Read more.
Accurate and efficient detection of road damage is crucial in traffic safety and maintenance management. Traditional road detection methods have problems such as low efficiency and insufficient accuracy, making it difficult to meet the needs of large-scale road health assessments. With the development of drone technology and computer vision, new ideas have been provided for the automatic detection of road diseases. The existing drone-based road detection methods have poor performance in dealing with complex road scenes such as vehicle occlusion, and there is still room for improvement in 3D modeling accuracy and disease detection accuracy, lacking a comprehensive and efficient solution. This paper proposes a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)-based 3D reconstruction and large-scale disease detection method for roads. By capturing aerial images with UAVs and utilizing an improved YOLOv8 model, vehicles in the images are identified and removed. Apply MVSNet (Multi-View Stereo Network) 3D reconstruction algorithm for road surface modeling, and finally use point cloud processing and DBSCAN (Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise) clustering for disease detection. The experimental results show that this method performs excellently in terms of 3D modeling accuracy and speed. Compared with the traditional colmap method, the reconstruction speed is greatly improved, and the reconstruction density is three times that of colmap. Meanwhile, the reconstructed point cloud can effectively detect road smoothness and settlement. This study provides a new method for effective disease detection under complex road conditions, suitable for large-scale road health assessment tasks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials, Structures and Designs for Durable Roads)
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22 pages, 14543 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Analysis of Carbonation Degree of Mortar Based on Multiple Interactive Influences
by Lihua Xie, Yang He, Zhenghong Tian, Hao Lu, Xinyu Zhang and Lujia Li
Materials 2024, 17(23), 5895; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17235895 - 2 Dec 2024
Viewed by 834
Abstract
This study conducts quantitative analysis of the degree of mortar carbonation under the influence of a multi-dimensional interaction. The HABT method is used to determine the degree of mortar carbonation and is compared with the TGA method. The result shows that the determination [...] Read more.
This study conducts quantitative analysis of the degree of mortar carbonation under the influence of a multi-dimensional interaction. The HABT method is used to determine the degree of mortar carbonation and is compared with the TGA method. The result shows that the determination result of the HABT method is only 3.86% higher than that of the TGA method. This method is suitable for determining the degree of carbonation. The study analyzes the influence of factors such as water-reducing agents on the degree of carbonation, demonstrates the relationship between pore structure and mortar carbonation, and explores the degree of carbonation of corner areas and general edges. It is found that as time prolongs, the degree of carbonation and carbonation depth will no longer show a linear relationship. Carbonation time also affects the direction of the carbonation front line and the effect of water-reducing agents on concrete carbonation. The degree of carbonation is linearly related to carbonation time and the number of exposed surfaces. The water~cement ratio and the number of exposed surfaces affect the porosity of concrete. There is interaction in the multi-dimensional area of mortar. The degree of carbonation at two-dimensional corners is 1.20~1.25 times that at general edges, and the degree of carbonation at three-dimensional corner areas is 2.03~2.11 times that at general edges. Accounting based on general edges will underestimate the carbon sink capacity of mortar structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials, Structures and Designs for Durable Roads)
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17 pages, 4153 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Impact and Mechanism of Polyacrylate-Based Composite Paste on the Performance of Recycled Aggregate
by Huaisen Li, Chunhe Li, Hua Wei, Qingan Li, Hao Lu and Jinyu Ge
Materials 2024, 17(21), 5242; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17215242 - 28 Oct 2024
Viewed by 884
Abstract
This study developed three composite slurries for coating recycled aggregate by incorporating polyacrylate emulsion, fly ash, and gypsum into a cement-based mixture. The filling and pozzolanic effects of fly ash help to improve microcracks in the recycled aggregates. The polyacrylate emulsion forms a [...] Read more.
This study developed three composite slurries for coating recycled aggregate by incorporating polyacrylate emulsion, fly ash, and gypsum into a cement-based mixture. The filling and pozzolanic effects of fly ash help to improve microcracks in the recycled aggregates. The polyacrylate emulsion forms a strong bonding layer between the cement matrix and the aggregates, enhancing the interfacial bond strength. Based on relevant studies, the following mix designs were developed: Slurry 1 consists of pure cement paste; Slurry 2 contains 15% fly ash and 3% gypsum added to the cement paste; Slurry 3 adds 22% polyacrylate emulsion to the slurry. The study first compared the effects of the three composite slurries on the crushing value and water absorption of recycled aggregates, and then analyzed their impact on the mechanical properties, permeability, and drying shrinkage of concrete. Finally, the mechanisms behind the enhancement were investigated using the Vickers Hardness Test (HV), Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP), and scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The results showed that the polyacrylate emulsion composite slurry had the most significant improvement effect. For recycled aggregate AL, the crushing value decreased from 28.8% to 22.5% and the saturated surface–dry water absorption decreased from 15.1% to 13.8% after cement slurry modification. After coating with the composite slurry, the crushing value further dropped to 18.2% and the water absorption to 9.5%. Two aspects of the performance of recycled aggregates are enhanced with the polymer composite slurry: first, fly ash provides nucleation sites for CH, reducing the tendency for directional CH alignment. Second, the long chains of PAE (polyacrylic ester) encapsulate cementitious particles, effectively filling surface defects on the recycled aggregates, improving the bonding strength at the new-to-old interface, and significantly enhancing the performance of both recycled aggregates and recycled concrete. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials, Structures and Designs for Durable Roads)
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13 pages, 3217 KiB  
Article
Relationship between Ambient Temperature and Reasonable Heat Dissipation Coefficient of Mass Concrete Pouring Blocks
by Jiaming Zhang, Hongshi Zhang, Yunpeng Zhao, Wenqiang Xu, Min Su, Jinyu Ge and Sheng Qiang
Materials 2024, 17(10), 2187; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17102187 - 7 May 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1086
Abstract
In engineering practice, similar surface insulation measures are typically applied to different parts of mass concrete surfaces. However, this can lead to cracking at the edges of the concrete surface or the wastage of insulation materials. In comparison to flat surfaces, the edges [...] Read more.
In engineering practice, similar surface insulation measures are typically applied to different parts of mass concrete surfaces. However, this can lead to cracking at the edges of the concrete surface or the wastage of insulation materials. In comparison to flat surfaces, the edges of mass concrete structures dissipate heat more rapidly, leading to more pronounced stress concentration phenomena. Therefore, reinforced insulation measures are necessary. To reduce energy consumption and enhance overall insulation effectiveness, it is essential to study the specific insulation requirements of both the flat surfaces and edges of concrete separately and implement targeted surface insulation measures. Taking the bridge abutment planned for pouring in Nanjing City as the research object, this study established a finite element model to explore the effects of different ambient temperatures and different surface heat dissipation coefficients on the early-age temperature and stress fields of different parts of the abutment’s surface. Based on simulation results, reasonable heat dissipation coefficients that meet the requirements for crack prevention on both the structure’s plane and edges under different ambient temperatures were obtained. The results indicate that under the same conditions, the reasonable heat dissipation coefficient at the edges was smaller than that on the flat surfaces, indicating the need for stronger insulation measures at the edges. Finally, mathematical models correlating ambient temperature with reasonable heat dissipation coefficients for the structure’s plane and edges at these temperatures were established, with high data correlation and determination coefficients (R2) of 0.95 and 0.92. The mathematical models were validated, and the results from finite element calculations were found to be consistent with those from the mathematical models, validating the accuracy of the mathematical models. The conclusions drawn can provide references for the insulation of similar engineering concrete planes and edges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials, Structures and Designs for Durable Roads)
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