Phase-Separation Characteristics of Bitumen and their Relation to Damage-Healing

During the service life of flexible asphalt pavements, asphalt concrete degrades due to traffic loading and environmental conditions like temperature, rain, oxidation, ultraviolet-radiation from the sun. All these environmental factors have adverse effects on the performance of bitumen, which is the binder of asphalt concrete. They are known to...

Chemomechanics of Damage Accumulation and Damage-Recovery Healing in Bituminous Asphalt Binders

As a contribution to the development of mutli-scale multi-physics approaches to modelling pavement performance, the present thesis considers the topic of damage accumulation accompanied by damage recover self-healing of the bituminous asphalt phase of pavement systems. It is found insightful that by adopting Hveem’s [1943] concept of attributing...

Microstructure and Engineering Properties of Alkali Activated Fly Ash -as an environment friendly alternative to Portland cement

Alkali activated fly ash (AAFA), also named “geopolymer”, has emerged as a novel engineering material in the construction industry. This material is normally formed by the reaction between fly ash and aqueous hydroxide or alkali silicate solution. With proper mix design, AAFA can present comparable or superior engineering properties to Portland...

Performance assessment of cement-based materials blended with micronized sand: Microstructure, durability and sustainability

Concrete is one of the most important construction materials in the world. However, Portland cement which is one of the constituents of concrete is responsible for about 5-10% of global CO2 emission. From sustainability point of view, therefore, it is important to search for materials which can be used to reduce or to replace Portland cement in...