ABSTRACT
Self-healing is the process whereby materials can repair their own cracks, resulting in an alternative maintenance method to ensure buildings and infrastructures keep providing their services over time. However, the natural occurrence of this phenomenon requires ideal temperature and stress conditions. In the context of roads made of asphalt mixtures, this process is usually boosted by adding metallic particles heated via magnetic induction. Since the use of virgin metallic particles involves high economic and environmental impacts, this research tested a set of 17 different metallic by-products from metal industry to improve the sustainability of the process. These materials were characterized at laboratory before dosaging experimental asphalt concrete mixtures and a break-heal-break test was applied to determine their healing ratio. Although some materials were found to be unsuitable due to their limited heating capacity, some mixtures led to achieve adequate healing ratios, especially when including by-products derived from blasting processes.
