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During the last 50 years, Rilem was continuously active in pre-standardization efforts aiming at gradually improving scientific and technological testing and analysis methods for refined understanding and characterization of bituminous binders and asphalt, both under well-defined laboratory and performance driven in-field conditions. This paper intends to highlight and provide a short overview on the international activities of Rilem’s to date 18 technical committees (TC) on asphalt and bituminous binders. After some general background information, underlining the specific complexity of asphalt pavement materials in terms of rheological behavior and basic structural functioning, it is shown that these activities resulted in numerous recommendations, state of the art reports and conference proceedings, all produced on a voluntary basis by scientific and technical commitment of individual experts. This wealth of results was created by the TCs following an own systematic methodology for many years which, at the end of the day, allowed building up activities through the new TCs of today in a much more specialized but at the same time also more diverse way. In view of this new flexibility and keeping in mind the previous success story of Rilem towards improved testing of asphalt pavements, future developments, challenges and interdisciplinary issues regarding bituminous road materials are outlined as potential starting point for future TC initiatives., QC 20190626Correction in:Doi: 10.1617/s11527-019-1418-xWOS: 000502802100005 Scopis:id 2-s2.0-85076346940

An overview on the background and motivation for this report on the achievements of the technical committee RILEM TC 237-SIB on Testing and Characterization of Sustainable Innovative Bituminous Materials and Systems is presented, together with a short summary on the scope of this voluntary international team effort. Challenges and key research paths towards modern “green” asphalt pavements are addressed, focusing on general aspects associated with the increasing variety of approaches and their implication on testing and characterization of innovative asphalt pavement materials. As example for the complexity of the experimental challenges and the potential necessity to break free from traditional testing patterns, selected specific aspects of reinforced asphalt pavements are considered and discussed. It is emphasized that testing must be consistent with the purpose of the reinforcement, answering the key questions in what respect, under what conditions and in what loading direction reinforcement should be achieved and tested. This “garbage-in-garbage-out” awareness is also valid for all other fields dealing with testing and characterization of innovative bituminous materials and systems, of course., Export Date: 9 May 2018; Editorial; Correspondence Address: Partl, M.N.; Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and TechnologySwitzerland; email: manfred.partl@empa.ch. QC 20180516