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Health Monitoring and Maintenance of Road Pavements Using Emerging Sensing Technologies: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 1847

Editors


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Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería del Transporte, Territorio y Urbanismo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: road pavements; infrastructures; asphalt materials; self-sensing materials; pavement health monitoring; smart materials; multifunctional pavements; sensors; non-destructive testing; digitalization; bitumen; nanomaterials; road infrastructure monitoring; pavement engineering; self-healing technologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería del Transporte, Territorio y Urbanismo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: asphalt pavement maintenance; self-healing pavement materials; recycling of pavement materials; bituminous materials; multifunctional pavements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Computer Science and Aeronautical Technologies Engineering, Roma Tre University, Via Vito Volterra 62, 00146 Rome, Italy
Interests: infrastructure monitoring; road pavements; persistent scatterers; SAR interferometry; sensors; bridge monitoring; structural monitoring; remote sensing; surface displacements; urban subsidence analysis; critical infrastructure monitoring road maintenance; bridge management systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit your research to the upcoming Special Issue of Sensors, entitled “Health Monitoring and Maintenance of Road Pavements Using Emerging Sensing Technologies: 2nd Edition”.

The monitoring of transport assets, especially road pavements, plays an essential role in aiding decision makers as they strive to formulate effective strategies for the assessment and maintenance of these vital assets over time. This research area is crucial due to its potential to enable administrative authorities and transport managers to enhance the resilience of road pavements to the challenges posed by aging, increased traffic flows, and, more generally, by climate change. In this context, health monitoring and maintenance operations are also fundamental to ensuring structural stability and operational safety.

This Special Issue aims to offer a comprehensive examination of recent advances in sensing technologies applicable to the health monitoring and maintenance operations of transport infrastructure systems, with a particular focus on road pavements, the implementation of emerging sensing technologies, and working at different scales. Within this context, we welcome applications focused on road health monitoring using cutting-edge sensors, including ground-based (embedded sensors, intrinsic self-sensing materials, IoT, and accelerometers), aerial (airborne Lidar and UAV), and spaceborne (satellite imageries) technologies. Furthermore, this SI aims to collect advanced research papers related to the exploration of how emerging sensing systems can be processed, analyzed, and effectively applied via the implementation of advanced processing techniques, including digital signal processing (DSP), machine learning, and DNNs. These technologies also have uses for augmented and virtual reality tools (AR/VR).

This Special Issue aims to present an overview of high-quality original research papers discussing recent developments and advances in emerging sensing technologies applied to road pavements. Therefore, authors are encouraged to submit papers that focus on topics such as the application of new technologies, approaches, or applications for road pavements, monitoring, rehabilitation, and conservation, with an emphasis on novel perspectives on pavement management systems (PMS). Additionally, review papers addressing the aforementioned research areas are also welcome.

Dr. Federico Gulisano
Prof. Dr. Juan Gallego Medina
Dr. Valerio Gagliardi
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors 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

  • sensing systems
  • pavement health monitoring
  • embedded sensors
  • self-sensing materials
  • spaceborne (SAR, optical, multispectral), aerial (UAVs), and ground-based sensing applications for road health monitoring
  • non-destructive testing surveys
  • digital signal processing (DSP) in sensor applications
  • pavement management systems (PMS)
  • predictive and condition-based road maintenance
  • machine learning, augmented and virtual reality tools

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 3402 KB  
Article
Capacitance-Based Characterization of Air-Void Distribution in Asphalt Mixtures Using a Saturated Reference Field
by Xing Hu, Qiao Dong, Bin Shi, Kang Yao and Zhen Liu
Sensors 2026, 26(15), 4961; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26154961 - 5 Aug 2026
Viewed by 71
Abstract
Air-void distribution is an important internal characteristic of asphalt mixtures, as it affects compaction quality, moisture susceptibility, permeability, and long-term pavement durability. Conventional air-void testing methods generally provide only an average volumetric parameter and cannot effectively describe the spatial distribution of air voids [...] Read more.
Air-void distribution is an important internal characteristic of asphalt mixtures, as it affects compaction quality, moisture susceptibility, permeability, and long-term pavement durability. Conventional air-void testing methods generally provide only an average volumetric parameter and cannot effectively describe the spatial distribution of air voids within cylindrical specimens. To address this limitation, this study proposes a capacitance-based method for characterizing the vertical and radial air-void distribution of asphalt mixtures using a saturated reference field. An annular capacitive sensor was designed for cylindrical asphalt mixture specimens, and its structural dimensions were optimized using capacitance sensitivity and sensitivity-field distribution uniformity as evaluation indicators. Asphalt mixture specimens with different gradations and compaction conditions were prepared and tested under a saturated reference-field measurement scheme. Dielectric indicators derived from capacitance measurements were used to characterize the variation in air-void distribution along the specimen height and across radial regions. Layer-wise air-void measurements were further conducted to validate the vertical distribution results, while radial partition-based indicators were introduced to quantitatively describe the air-void distribution characteristics from the center to the edge of the specimen. In addition, rotation-angle and saturated-condition stability tests were performed to evaluate the robustness of the proposed method. The results indicate that the saturated reference-field capacitance method can effectively reflect the spatial variation in air voids in asphalt mixtures and provides a low-cost, rapid, and non-destructive approach for evaluating air-void distribution characteristics in laboratory-compacted specimens. Full article
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16 pages, 6281 KB  
Article
Multivariable Evaluation of Wireless Power Transfer in Electrified Pavements with Magnetite-Modified Asphalt Mixtures
by Gustavo Boada-Parra, Federico Gulisano, Damaris Cubilla and Juan Gallego
Sensors 2025, 25(21), 6646; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25216646 - 30 Oct 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1191
Abstract
Electrified roads with embedded wireless power transfer (WPT) systems provide a promising strategy for dynamic charging of electric vehicles, but pavement materials strongly influence transmission efficiency. This study examines the effect of replacing conventional filler with magnetite powder in AC-16 asphalt mixtures. Specimens [...] Read more.
Electrified roads with embedded wireless power transfer (WPT) systems provide a promising strategy for dynamic charging of electric vehicles, but pavement materials strongly influence transmission efficiency. This study examines the effect of replacing conventional filler with magnetite powder in AC-16 asphalt mixtures. Specimens were prepared with five magnetite substitution levels (0–100%) and three bitumen contents (4.1%, 4.6%, and 5.1%) and were tested under different temperatures (10, 20, and 40 °C), moisture conditions (dry and saturated), and specimen thicknesses. Power transmission was measured with a resonant inductive system at 85 kHz, and both received power variation (RPV) and relative efficiency (RE) were computed. Results showed that magnetite systematically improved electromagnetic performance: RPV increased by up to 13% under dry conditions at 20 °C with 100% magnetite, while RE exhibited smaller variations (−1% to +2%). Moisture reduced RPV, and high temperature (40 °C) caused additional losses, whereas RE remained largely stable. Bitumen contributed indirectly, adding modest RPV gains. Thickness was the dominant geometric factor, with magnetite content particularly effective in mitigating losses at greater depths. Random forest analysis confirmed thickness and magnetite as the most influential variables. These findings demonstrate the potential of magnetite-modified asphalt to enhance the design of WPT-enabled pavements, providing a robust experimental basis for future full-scale applications. Full article
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