AMRAB · Adhesion Multiphysics of Rubberised Asphalt Binders

Adhesion Multiphysics of Rubberised Asphalt Binders

Asphalt pavements play a vital role in the European and global transport infrastructure industry as they drive economic growth and social well-being in all countries. Public investment in road construction in Europe totals about €80 billion per year. In Europe, it is estimated that over 90% of the 5.2 million km of paved roads and highways are surfaced with asphalt. Europe has about 4,000 asphalt production plants and produces 435 million metric tonnes per year. Meanwhile, with the increased number of vehicles, approximately one billion end-of-life tires (ELTs) are produced every year. The rising environmental awareness has driven people to seek appropriate treatment and disposal of ELTs, such as retreading, energy recovery and material recycling. In civil engineering, bitumen modification with crumb rubber from ELTs has been successfully applied in the paving industry because of its economic and environmental benefits. The rubberised asphalt concrete technology not only increases the disposal of ELTs but also improves the overall performance of asphalt pavements with added values, e.g., noise reduction, higher skid resistance, etc. Field and laboratory tests have demonstrated that rubberised asphalt mixtures have greater resistance to fatigue/thermal cracking and rutting. However, significant concerns exist around the aging and moisture-induced durability damages (e.g., block cracks and potholes) of rubberised asphalt that impede its further applications, which fundamentally results from the weak adhesion between the CRMB and the rock aggregates under severe environmental (moisture and ageing) conditions. In response to the European objective of sustainable development, this specific project aims to develop a durable CRMB technology with a high adhesion performance to reduce the consumption of raw materials (e.g., petroleum bitumen), increase recycling of ELTs while still meeting the demand for long-term durability and improved pavement performance. AMRAB accepts all scientific challenges and the overall Research Objective (RO) is to train the Fellow through this interdisciplinary project focused on modelling the adhesion multiphysics of CRMB and developing adhesion promoters and technologies for industrial applications. Specifically, RO1: Training of the Fellow’s academic expertise, professional skills and inter-sectoral collaboration. RO2: Fundamental investigation of adhesion multi-physical mechanisms of CRMB at field environmental conditions. RO3: Modelling the circular dependences of adhesion multiphysics and computational performance prediction of CRMB. RO4: Experimental development and evaluation of materials and technologies to improve adhesion between CRMB and aggregates. RO5: Industrial application of adhesion evaluation framework and adhesion promoters in rubberised asphalt pavements.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз