The Effect of Conductive Alginate Capsules Encapsulating Rejuvenator (HealRoad Capsules) on the Healing Properties of 10 mm Stone Mastic Asphalt Mix.

Featured Application: Conductive alginate capsules encapsulating a bitumen rejuvenator (HealRoad capsules) is a unique self-healing asphalt technology which reinforces the asphalt pavement by improving its tensile and compressive strength and enhances its autonomous healing properties. The concept combines two existing self-healing asphalt technologies (induction heating and rejuvenator encapsulation) to create a self-healing system which provides quick and effective asphalt pavement repair. The induction heating is used to repair asphalt damage (cracks and ravelling) while the rejuvenator is released to rejuvenate aged asphalt binder (bitumen). Conductive alginate capsules encapsulating a bitumen rejuvenator (HealRoad capsules) has demonstrated good healing abilities in pure bitumen and mortar mixes. HealRoad capsules can efficiently heal damage via induction heating. They also release the encapsulated rejuvenator, thereby rejuvenating aged bitumen. These findings indicate that HealRoad capsules and induction heating systems combined could represent a possible asphalt pavement maintenance method. This paper investigated the effect of HealRoad capsules on the mechanical performance of the 10 mm stone mastic asphalt mix and measured the damage repair (healing) efficiency of the capsules in an asphalt mix. The results indicate that in small amounts, >1%, HealRoad capsules do not degrade the mix performance (indirect tensile strength and rutting resistance) and in some cases, the HealRoad capsules actually improve mix performance, e.g., in terms of the indirect tensile strength ratio (water sensitivity). However, the HealRoad capsules are unable to stimulate induction healing due to the small volume of capsules within the mix. Further investigation demonstrated that increasing the capsules in the mix to >5% can stimulate induction heating effectively. However, it also indicated that a high content of HealRoad capsules reduces the asphalt mix strength. The study has shown that HealRoad capsules are an effective healing system for high bitumen content mixtures such as mortar mixtures but is an inefficient healing system for a full asphalt mix, such as the 10 mm stone mastic asphalt mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]