Abstract

Self-healing asphalt pavements are an alternative and sustainable road infrastructure. Through a literature review and laboratory tests, the authors aimed to develop a methodology to study the efficiency of asphalt pavement self-healing techniques. Results showed that Healing Indexes based on peak loads could be misleading to estimate the effectiveness of self-healing techniques. A novel methodology using the semicircular bending test and the fracture mechanics parameter Jc is proposed to estimate pavement fatigue life extension when self-healing techniques are applied. Following this novel methodology, results show that one cycle of microwave heating of conventional asphalt pavement achieves a 20% fatigue life extension.