Temperature sensors that can operate in high-temperature and harsh environments are highly desired. However, this is a great challenge for sensing materials to operate under extreme working conditions because of oxidation and/or corrosion at high temperature. In this study, polymer-derived SiAlCN ceramics were prepared as sensing materials to overcome the abovementioned issues. A SiAlCN ceramic temperature sensor was designed and fabricated, and it performed excellent temperature-sensing properties with high accuracy, high stability, and high repeatability up to 1000 °C. Compared with traditional thermocouples, the SiAlCN ceramic sensor exhibited a faster response rate (a shorter response time). These results showed that SiAlCN ceramic is a promising sensor material for temperature measurement in high-temperature and harsh environments.

This Special Issue "Sustainable Designed Pavement Materials" has been proposed and organized as a means to present recent developments in the field of environmentally-friendly designed pavement materials. For this reason, articles included in this special issue relate to different aspects of pavement materials, from industry solid waste recycling to pavement materials recycling, from pavement materials modification to asphalt performance characterization, from pavement defect detection to pavement maintenance, and from asphalt pavement to cement concrete pavement, as highlighted in this editorial.

It is well known that crumb rubber (CR) and styrene–butadienestyrene (SBS) composite modified asphalt has better rheological and engineering performance. However, it always presents very poor compatibility and storage stability. Meanwhile, Trans-polyoctenamer (TOR) can effectively improve the compatibility and thermal stability of rubber asphalt. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of TOR on rheological properties, microstructure and thermal stability of CR/SBS modified asphalt. The results show that TOR has a significant influence on strengthening anti-rutting and temperature sensitivity of CR/SBS modified asphalt. However, TOR has a slightly negative influence on the anti-cracking ability for CR/SBS modified asphalt, which still maintains the critical low temperature requirement. Furthermore, TOR could be able to promote the conformation of cross-linked structure between polymer and asphalt, resulting in a significant enhancement in rheological properties and thermal stability of CR/SBS modified asphalt. Lastly, the effects of TOR on viscoelastic performance for modified asphalt markedly depend on the component of neat asphalt, and high asphaltene content is beneficial for improving the rheological behavior effects of TOR.

Noise produced from the tyre-road surface interface is one of the most important contributions to the overall traffic noise and there is an increasing requirement for predicting the tyre-road noise levels prior to road construction in the Netherlands. In practice, a model with a simple structure as well as a high accuracy is applicable in road engineering. Also, material properties are preferred to be used as input variables of the prediction model, which will facilitate the pavement design. Based on these considerations, models are developed for evaluating the tyre-road noise from the asphalt mixture compositions and road surface characteristics. They are statistical models developed from the measurements on thin layer surfacings in the Netherlands. Different regression methods, model types and input variable combinations are taken into account. The selection of the model is due to the fitness of the prediction and validation by using measurement data from in service road sections. Two models, which evaluate the tyre-road noise level from the surface characteristics and from material properties, respectively, are finally selected. By using these models, only a small number of input variables are required and reliable predictions can be provided. The models achieved in this study can be used for predicting the tyre-road noise generation in road engineering and investigating the influence of surface characteristics and material properties on tyre- road noise levels.