CAREER: Investigating Molecular, Physical and Mechanical Properties that Influence Macroscopic Self-Healing in Asphalt Materials

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The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to seek and establish the relationship between the chemical and mechanical properties of asphalt binder and its inherent ability to reverse micro-cracks and self-heal. This will be achieved by advancing, verifying and integrating the theories of contact mechanics that describe crack wetting, and theories of adhesion and inter-diffusion that describe strength gain. Novel experimental tools that allow measurement of crack opening and closing in real time at the nanometer scale will be fabricated and used in this research. The educational component of this award will develop an e-learning module that will use simple, short examples and case studies to expose, educate, and inspire undergraduate students to investigate and understand the link between the macroscopic behavior of fundamental chemical and mechanical properties of materials used in civil engineering applications to their macroscopic behavior.The experimental tools and theoretical findings from this research will advance the understanding of micro-crack growth and self-healing in viscoelastic materials such as polymers and asphalt binders that are used to construct pavements. Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent annually to expand and maintain our pavement infrastructure. The findings from this research will also provide much needed fundamental knowledge to design asphalt binders and mixtures with superior self-healing characteristics and mechanical properties. The use of these engineered binders will significantly improve the serviceable life of pavements and ultimately reduce consumption of non-renewable natural resources such as crude oil and crushed mineral aggregates.