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This project aimed to use a multi-disciplinary approach to advance our fundamental knowledge about low noise road surfaces and 1) Develop low noise pavements to improve comfort and health of urban dwellers focusing on noise mitigation. 2) Target certain waste materials from the urban environment, for the purpose of producing low noise pavements. 3) Exploration of the noise reduction potential by modification of absorption and reflection properties of the surfaces that form urban street canyons and evaluation of the measures from a subjective point of view by auralization and listening tests.4) the results from 3) will be used to improve extend existing methods for noise health assessment in Life Cycle Impact Assessment, and the new models will be embedded into a full Life Cycle assessment of the new pavements. Various open access publications listed below and one PhD thesis report on the findings of this project. In case you need data from this project that you cannot find please contact the authors. PHD Thesis Urban mining for low-noise urban roads Zhengyin Piao, https://esd.ifu.ethz.ch/research/research-projects/research-and-theses/urban-mining-low-noise-roads.html Poulikakos, L.D., Kakar, M.R., Piao, Z. Urban mining for low-noise urban roads towards more sustainability in the urban environment (2023) Road Materials and Pavement Design, DOI: 10.1080/14680629.2023.2180993 Piao, Z., Waldner, U., Heutschi, K., Poulikakos, L.D., Hellweg, S. Modified life cycle assessment for Low-Noise urban roads including acoustics and monetarization (2022) Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 112, art. no. 103475. DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2022.103475 Piao, Z., Mikhailenko, P., Kakar, M.R., Hellweg, S., Poulikakos, L.D. Comparative Environmental Analysis for Using Waste Polyethylene and Steel Slag in Semi-dense Asphalt Pavements (2022) Journal of Testing and Evaluation, 51 (4) DOI: 10.1520/JTE20220273 Kakar Rafiq, M., Mikhailenko, P., Piao, Z., Poulikakos, L.D. High and low temperature performance of polyethylene waste plastic modified low noise asphalt mixtures (2022) Construction and Building Materials, 348, art. no. 128633, DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.128633 Piao, Z., Heutschi, K., Pieren, R., Mikhailenko, P., Poulikakos, L.D., Hellweg, S. Environmental trade-offs for using low-noise pavements: Life cycle assessment with noise considerations. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156846 (2022) Science of the Total Environment, 842, art. no. 156846 Mikhailenko, P, Arraigada, M, Piao Z, Poulikakos, L D., Multiscale Laboratory Mechanical Performance of SDA Mixtures with Construction and Demolition Waste Filler J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2022, 34(6): 04022106, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0004244 Poulikakos, L., Athari, S., Mikhailenko, Kakar, M.R., P., Piao, Z., Bueno, M., Pieren, R., Heutschi, K., Effect of waste materials on acoustical properties of semi-dense asphalt mixtures, Transportation Research Part D 102 (2022) 103154, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2021.103154 Piao, Z.; Bueno, M.; Poulikakos, L. D.; Hellweg, S., Life cycle assessment of rubberized semi-dense asphalt pavements; A hybrid comparative approach. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2022, 176, 105950. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105950 Mikhailenko, P, Piao Z, Kakar, M R, Bueno M, Poulikakos, L D., Durability and surface properties of low-noise pavements with recycled concrete aggregates, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 319, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128788. Mikhailenko, P, Piao, Z, Kakar, M R, , Athari, S, Bueno, M, Poulikakos, L.D. Effect of waste PET and CR as sand replacement on the durability and acoustical properties of semi dense asphalt (SDA) mixtures, Sustainable Materials and Technologies,Volume 29, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.susmat.2021.e00295. Kakar, M R, Mikhailenko, P, Piao, Z, Bueno, M, Poulikakos, L. (2021) Analysis of waste polyethylene (PE) and its by-products in asphalt binder. Construction and Building Materials Volume 280, 19 April 2021, 122492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122492 Piao, Z., Mikhailenko, P., Kakar, M.R., Bueno, M., Hellweg, S., Poulikakos, L.D., (2021). Urban mining for asphalt pavements: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production 280, 124916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124916. Mikhailenko, P., Kakar, M.R., Piao, Z., Bueno, M., Poulikakos, L. Improving the Sustainability of Semi-Dense Asphalt Pavements by Replacement of Recycled Concrete Aggregate Fractions (2020) Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, 76, pp. 343-351. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-48679-2_33 Mikhailenko, P., Rafiq Kakar, M., Piao, Z., Bueno, M., Poulikakos, L. Incorporation of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) fractions in semi-dense asphalt (SDA) pavements: Volumetrics, durability and mechanical properties (2020) Construction and Building Materials, 264, art. no. 120166. DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120166 Mikhailenko, P., Piao, Z., Kakar, M.R., Bueno, M., Athari, S., Pieren, R., Heutschi, K., Poulikakos, L. Low-Noise pavement technologies and evaluation techniques: a literature review (2020) International Journal of Pavement Engineering,DOI:10.1080/10298436.2020.1830091

In order to improve the sustainability of the low-noise Semi-Dense Asphalt (SDA), the aggregate fractions were replaced by recycled concrete aggregates (RCA), an abundant construction waste. The aggregate replacement was conducted by fractions of 2/4 and 0.125/2 mm corresponding to the 2/4 mm (coarse), 0.063/4 mm (sand) fractions of the control virgin aggregates, at about 15% replacement by volume of the control mixture for each fraction. Additionally, RCA filler replaced the control filler entirely, bringing the replacement level to over 20% of the total mixture. The binder was added at the same amount as the control binder and +0.5%, with additional binder compensating for the estimated increase in binder absorption in RCA. The wheel track rutting test at 60 °C indicated marginally improved performance with RCA sand replacement. However, low temperature semi-circular bending (SCB) test at 0 °C showed that there is a 10% reduction in cracking resistance using RCA coarse and 20% for RCA sand. The laser texture scanning indicated a small reduction in the texture level for the RCA samples before wheel tracking, and very similar texture profiles with the control after the wearing of the samples, indicating no significant effect in non-acoustic noise reduction properties. This study suggests that the use of RCA fractions in porous SDA surface mixtures is possible with particular attention to mixture optimization to improve rutting performance., Journal of Cleaner Production, 319, ISSN:0959-6526

The increasing consumption of natural resources for road construction and generation of urban waste materials are two global ecological problems. Urban mining aims to convert waste materials into raw materials for industrial production, and as a result, address both problems simultaneously. This study explores the potential of urban mining for asphalt pavement surface courses. In the first part, as each country/region has its unique challenge with waste materials, a screening method taking the EU and Switzerland as case studies is employed to select waste materials that potentially qualify for asphalt surface course. The second part presents a review of laboratory studies regarding the performance of asphalt mixtures with selected waste materials. Based on the industrial experience, the third part discusses the technology, specifications and cost considerations of asphalt surface course with waste materials. Furthermore, the technical maturities for using waste materials are estimated in terms of technology readiness level (TRL). Overall, the paper demonstrates that various categories of waste materials can be potentially used in asphalt surface course, revealing urban mining opportunities. The selected waste materials may improve the performance of asphalt mixtures with optimization of several factors, such as the fraction size and amounts of waste materials for addition or replacement. The TRL results showed that using crumb rubber (wet process) and steel slag are currently more mature than using other waste materials in asphalt surface course., Journal of Cleaner Production, 280, ISSN:0959-6526

The use of waste plastics in partial asphalt binder replacement and substitute for polymer modification has the potential to contribute to the sustainability of road infrastructure as well as preservation of natural resources. In this study, two types of polyethylene (PE) waste plastics PE-pellets and PE-shreds (a by-product of the former, currently incinerated after production) were blended with a conventional asphalt binder in order to analyze their effect on the chemo-mechanical and thermal behavior. Particular attention was paid to the characterization of the waste PE as well as to the description of sample preparation, lacking in other studies. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) were used to assess the different types of PE and blended asphalt binder's thermal properties, chemical modification degree and quality of blending, respectively. The rheological performance of waste PE blended binder was obtained using the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR). The results illustrated that compared to commercial polymer modified binders, the binder resistance against high temperature distresses such as rutting could improve substantially with adding waste PE. The modulus of the binders at low temperatures was comparable. However, the negative results of high temperature storage stability of the PE blended binders indicated that attention needs to be paid to the mixture preparation method., Construction and Building Materials, 280, ISSN:0950-0618

Construction materials research is consistently striving to improve sustainability, in the reduction of virgin materials by use of otherwise landfilled materials of the same purpose. Crumb rubber (CR) from end-of-life tires and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from post-consumer liquid containers are two of the most commonly circulating forms of waste in the urban environment. This study investigated the replacement of semi-dense asphalt (SDA) sand by untreated mechanically shredded CR and PET, at 2.5 and 5.1% respectively by total mass of aggregates. The mixtures were evaluated by compactability, indirect tensile strength (ITS), fracture energy (FE), water sensitivity by ITS ratio (ITSR%), surface texture and acoustic absorption tests. After compaction, the CR and PET samples experienced an elastic rebound effect, which resulted in the air voids being higher than expected. Also, the PET samples required more compaction energy. The ITS, FE and ITSR% were significantly reduced with CR replacement, while the PET mixture performed similar to the control, especially in FE. The sound absorption was related more to the air voids than the material type, although the absorption coefficients of the SDA was not found to be significant. The CR reduced the texture level of the pavement significantly in comparison to the control, while texture level remained the same for the PET mixture, despite a difference in the porosity. Further studies were performed using a mixture replacing PET by aggregate volume at 5.1%, comparing it to the control SDA in terms of low temperature cracking and permanent deformation at 50 °C. While the compactability of the PET mixture was now similar to that of the control, the resistance to cracking and permanent deformation was lower. Although the PET mixture had some interesting ductility properties, the replacement of sand by CR and PET is not recommended, and the more common use as asphalt mixture modifiers with fairly low addition contents of around 1% is more sound., Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 29

Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019 : 9-13 September 2019, Aachen, Germany / proceedings editor: Martin Ochmann, Michael Vorländer, Janina Fels 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, integrating 4th EAA Euroregio 2019, ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany, 9 Sep 2019 - 13 Sep 2019; Aachen (2019)., Published by Aachen