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Wang, Z. (author), Krishnakumari, P.K. (author), Anupam, K. (author), van Lint, J.W.C. (author), Erkens, S. (author)The relationship between real-world traffic and pavement raveling is unclear and subject to ongoing debates. This research proposes a novel approach that extends beyond traditional correlation analyses to explore causal mechanisms between mixed traffic and raveling. This approach incorporates the causal discovery method, and is applied to...journal article 2024
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author)The low-temperature relaxation and fatigue cracking performance are two essential aspects in estimating the rejuvenation efficiency of recycling agents (RAs). This study aims to fundamentally investigate the effects of recycling agent type/dosage and aging degree of bitumen on thermodynamic and rheological properties of rejuvenated bitumen at...journal article 2024
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author)This study implements molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore the atomic-level energy properties of rejuvenated bitumen, considering the influence of different recycling agent (RA) types, dosages and aging levels of bitumen. Moreover, the potential correlations between energy indices and high-temperature performance of rejuvenated bitumen...journal article 2024
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Assaf Martinez-Streignard, E.I. (author), Liu, X. (author), Lin, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author)This paper presents a United Atom (UA) force field for simulating hydrocarbon molecules in bituminous materials, integrating explicit hydrogens into beads with their parent atom. This method simplifies all-atom molecular models, significantly accelerating Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of bitumen by 10 to 100 times. Key advantages...journal article 2024
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Assaf Martinez-Streignard, E.I. (author), Liu, X. (author), Lin, Peng (author), Erkens, S. (author)Pdb2dat, developed in Python, is an open-source, self-contained utility that facilitates the conversion of PDB files into LAMMPS data files, catering to the need of initializing atomistic simulation from initial atomic configurations. It extracts molecular details from PDB files, uses Rdkit and Xyz2mol for bonding analysis and 3D conformer...journal article 2024
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Assaf Martinez-Streignard, E.I. (author), Liu, X. (author), Lin, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author)The advent of computational techniques, particularly atomistic simulations, has lessened the dependency on physical experiments in various scientific fields. Yet, the preparation complexity for simulations using platforms like LAMMPS and GROMACS persists. We introduce SMI2PDB, a Python tool that automates molecular systems assembly from SMILES...journal article 2024
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Ma, L. (author), Seyed Salehi, H. (author), Jing, R. (author), Erkens, S. (author), Vlugt, T.J.H. (author), Moultos, O. (author), Greenfield, M.L. (author), Varveri, Aikaterini (author)Water transport is one of the major factors responsible for moisture damage in asphalt pavements. To study the thermodynamics and kinetics of water transport in bitumen and to uncover microscale mechanisms of moisture-induced damage, molecular dynamics simulations were performed for up to 600 ns for water–bitumen systems with realistic water...journal article 2023
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Ma, L. (author), Varveri, Aikaterini (author), Jing, R. (author), Erkens, S. (author)The chemical characterization of bitumen type and ageing state are fundamental in determining structural and mechanical properties of bitumen. This work aims to classify various bitumen types at different ageing states and to identify the primary chemical differences relevant to the classification. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectral...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Varveri, Aikaterini (author), Khalighi, S. (author), Jing, R. (author), Erkens, S. (author)The rejuvenation efficiency of aged bitumen is the main concern when developing rejuvenating agents. It is necessary to develop a method to assess the efficiency of rejuvenators using rheological parameters in the whole frequency region. To this end, the 2S2P1D micromechanics model is adopted to fit the entire G∗ master curves of various...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author)This study aims to systematically investigate the influence of rejuvenator type/dosage and the aging degree of bitumen on the rutting resistance, flow behavior, and elastic/creep potential of rejuvenated bitumen at high temperatures. The rutting parameter (G*/sinδ), rutting failure temperature (RFT) from Linear viscoelastic test (LVE), zero...journal article 2023
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Jing, R. (author), Apostolidis, P. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author), Scarpas, Athanasios (author)Epoxy-asphalt (EA) attracted the attention of road authorities in many countries as a solution for open-graded porous surface layers with enhanced durability and longevity. This research presents an experimental programme to assess the durability of epoxy-modified open-graded porous asphalt (EMOGPA) mixes, emphasising the effects of the...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Jing, R. (author), Gao, Y. (author), Lin, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author)Two types of elastomer/plastic compound-modified bitumen were developed by means of incorporating the reactive elastomeric terpolymer (RET) into the plastic (high-density polyethylene HDPE or recycled polyethylene RPE) modified bitumen and adding the wax residue (WR) into the bitumen/elastomer (crumb rubber CR or styrene–butadiene–styrene SBS)...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author)This study aims to propose critical fatigue indicators for evaluating the restoration effectiveness of various rejuvenators on the fatigue performance of aged bitumen. The influence factors of rejuvenator type/dosage and aging degree of bitumen are involved, and different fatigue parameters from linear viscoelastic (LVE), linear amplitude sweep ...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Gao, Y. (author), Jing, R. (author), Lin, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author), Wang, H. (author)This study aims to multiscale investigate the effects of rejuvenator type, temperature, and aging degree of bitumen on the diffusion behaviors of rejuvenators (bio-oil BO, engine-oil EO, naphthenic-oil NO, and aromatic-oil AO) in aged binders. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method is performed to detect the molecular-level diffusion...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author)The relaxation behavior affected by aging and rejuvenation plays a crucial role in its low-temperature cracking potential of bitumen. However, there are limited studies on the relaxation performance of rejuvenated bitumen under different rejuvenation conditions. This paper aims to propose critical indicators to assess the rejuvenation efficiency...journal article 2023
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Ren, S. (author), Liu, X. (author), van Aggelen, M. (author), Lin, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author)This study investigates the impacts of rejuvenator type/dosage and the aging degree of bitumen on the chemical and rheological properties of rejuvenated bitumen, and propose critical chemo-rheological indicators for evaluating rejuvenation efficiency. Moreover, the potential connections between essential chemical and rheological indices of...journal article 2023
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Lin, P. (author), Liu, X. (author), Erkens, S. (author), Welvaarts, Bart (author), Brouns, Koen (author)Cold in-place recycling is gaining more attention worldwide because of its lower energy consumption, while the normally used asphalt emulsion and foamed asphalt cannot meet this requirement of short traffic disturbance and road performance of the surface layer. In this research, a polyurethane-modified cold binder (PMCB) was designed and...journal article 2023
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Assaf Martinez-Streignard, E.I. (author), Liu, X. (author), Lin, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author), Nahar, Sayeda (author), Mensink, Liz I.S. (author)Conventional Molecular Dynamics (MD) models of bitumen are built by homogeneously mixing molecules in a volume without considering that the molecules in bitumen are known to exhibit phase behavior and form distinctive molecular arrangements. These are known to have a significant impact in the behavior of bitumen, and considering their...journal article 2023
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Sun, Z. (author), Kasbergen, C. (author), van Dalen, K.N. (author), Anupam, K. (author), Scarpas, Athanasios (author), Erkens, S. (author)The structural evaluation of existing pavements forms the basis for formulating cost-effective maintenance and rehabilitation strategies. A promising tool for pavement structural evaluation at network level is the Traffic Speed Deflectometer (TSD) test. However, the application of the TSD test is hindered by the lack of a robust and efficient...journal article 2022
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Anupam, K. (author), Liu, X. (author), Scarpas, Athanasios (author), Apostolidis, P. (author), Erkens, S. (author), van Aggelen, M. (author)Membranes of sufficient bonding characteristics could improve the integrity of the multi-layer structures on orthotropic steel deck bridges (OSBDs), enhancing thus the structural response of these systems and, ultimately, their service life. In this research, full-scale experiments were performed at the LINTRACK accelerated pavement testing...journal article 2022