ABSTRACT
Nowadays the self-healing process is a new frontier in material engineering, which allows changing the approach to the maintenance of aged road pavements. As is well known, top-down cracking and bottom-up cracking are major damage phenomena in pavement structures. Unfortunately, self-healing properties are currently difficult to apply in case of bottom-up propagation. In this context, the aim of the presented study is to set up an innovative and non-destructive method to carry out the rehabilitation of damaged road structures, made up of materials wherein the self-healing process is induced by microwave deep healing. The method uses electromagnetic fields in the microwave frequency range in order to induce a selective and deep heating in the damaged structure and, hence, trigger the self-healing process of the material. Healing properties of the asphalt mixtures are enhanced doping the target pavement layers through conductive particles. Simulations demonstrate that the method allows achieving a deep, selective, adaptive, and not invasive healing without significantly modifying the mechanical properties of materials.
