Freeze-thaw damage in asphalt pavements is a complex phenomenon dependent on many parameters such as moisture infiltration, temperature and mechanical properties of the asphalt constituents as well as the interface between them. As a first step in creating a comprehensive multiscale model including all of these parameters, a micromechanical model has been developed. This model couples the infiltration of moisture and the associated damage, the expansion caused by the water inside the air voids freezing, and the mechanical damage. The expansion of the air voids is implemented by applying a volumetric expansion in the air voids dependent on the temperature. The cohesive damage in the mastic and adhesive damage in the mastic-aggregate interface are included by implementing an energy-based damage model and the cohesive zone model, respectively. To show the capabilities of the model, the effect of different parameters (the number of freeze-thaw cycles, the gradation of the microstructure, and the freezing time) was investigated through simulations. From the analyses it was concluded that the model was capable of capturing the deteriorating effect of an increasing number of freeze-thaw cycles, and was sensitive to the freezing time in the freeze-thaw cycles.

The widespread use of Electric Vehicles (EVs) has been one of the main directionsfor pursuing a sustainable future of road transport in which, the deployment ofthe associated charging infrastructures, static or dynamic, has been included as oneof the main cornerstones for its success. Different electrified road (eRoad) systemswhich allow for dynamic charging of EVs by transferring electrical power from theroad to the vehicle in-motion, either in a conductive or contactless way, are underactive investigation. One of the important tasks in feasibility analysis of suchinfrastructure is to quantitatively assess its environmental performance and, thus,the consequential influences to the sustainability of road electrification as a whole.Having this concern in mind, in this study, a systematic LCA study is carried out in which the environmental impacts from the different life cycle stages have beencalculated and compared among several promising eRoad systems. In a next step,suitable strategies can be accordingly made to minimize these impacts in a most effectiveway; and more importantly, the LCA results of this study can serve as one ofthe important bases for conducting a more comprehensive and objective evaluationof the potential environmental benefits EVs could bring.

Winter damage in asphalt pavements is a complex phenomenon which may cause pothole formation, dislodging of stones and structural layer separation. In order to reduce the winter damage, knowledge about the process in both the pavement and on a microstructural level is required. This paper focuses on modeling the process of damage evolution on a microstructural level in order to identify and understand the different phenomena influencing the degradation process. In this paper the evolution of winter damage in an asphalt concrete microstructure was modeled throughout the course of two winter seasons. The simulations include freezing and thawing cycles as well as additional damage originating from snow plows, both based on real weather data from Luleå in the north of Sweden. The results show a large increase of damage in both the mastic and the aggregate-mastic interface, and thereby also vertical displacement of the top surface, after the first freeze-thaw cycle. During the following freeze-thaw cycles the mastic damage continuous to increase but with a decreasing rate while the damage in the aggregate-mastic interface is only affected by the manually added damage from the snow plow. These results indicate a need to include the growth of -and emergence of new air voids in the model as well as an investigation of the actual behavior and influence of the damage evolution in the interface regions.

Frost damage in asphalt pavements is an important factor influencing the performance of the pavement. This type of damage occurs during freeze-thaw cycles when ice forms in the air voids, causing microstructural changes and degradation of material properties, thus affecting the performance of the pavement. It is therefore necessary to understand the process of frost damage in order to prevent it. However, experimental testing is often expensive and time consuming and only a limited number of numerical models dealing with the topic exist. In this work, a numerical micromechanical model has been developed that couple the diffusion of moisture in the asphalt to the damage occurring in a freezing and thawing environment. In this paper, the model is presented and applied on an asphalt microstructure obtained by x-ray scanning of a real asphalt sample. The effect of including frost damage is shown by comparing the behavior of a damaged microstructure to the behavior of an undamaged microstructure. It is revealed that the strength of the damaged microstructure reduces to about 50% of the strength of the undamaged microstructure. Furthermore, the coupling of the moisture content in the air voids to the expansion of the air voids is proved to be important since the assumption that all air voids are fully saturated overestimates the decrease in strength. The next step in this research will be to validate the model with laboratory data. A validated model can assist in improving the predictions of frost damage and help in developing better laboratory tests.

Winter damage in pavements, such as potholes, dislodging of stones and structural layer separation, occurs during and after winter seasons. This damage is caused by several processes, such as freezing and thawing action, moisture accumulation, traffic loads and winter maintenance actions, which combined makes winter damage a highly complex phenomenon. To better understand this process and, in the future, being able to predict the damage propagation by modeling, this paper discusses the possibility to separate these actions and phenomena into different cases. The focus in this paper is on the freezing -and thawing damage and how it is affected by different environmental conditions, inspired by real weather data from the City of Luleå in the north of Sweden. To investigate this, a microscale model is utilized. The results from the simulations show an increasing adhesive damage with the number of freeze-thaw cycles while the cohesive damage in the viscoelastic mastic increases is the most severe for a period with several days of freezing temperatures. A discussion of how the separation of winter damage into different cases will contribute to the ultimate goal of a multiscale model is also included.

Aiming to quantitatively evaluate the microstructure of polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) for roads, this paper employs the two-dimensional fast Fourier transform(2D-FFT) to process the microscopic and numerical images of four PMBs. The related derivative parameters, including the characteristic frequency and wavelength, are computed from the 2D-FFT power spectrum. The results show that the absence/presence of a characteristic frequency (range) on the power spectrum can indicate the lack/existence of the corresponding periodical structural pattern(s) in the original PMB image. A lower characteristic frequency usually represents a coarser PMB microstructure while a higher one implies a finer PMB microstructure. The 2D-FFT method is thus valid for differentiating various PMB microstructures. The proposed method is also capable of quantitatively evaluating the effects of temperature and the temporal evolution of PMB microstructure during phase separation. As the separation continues, the decrease of characteristic frequency indicates the coarsening process of a PMB microstructure. Additionally, the numerical reproduction of the observed phase separation is evaluated with the same method. The quantitative comparison with the experimental results reveals that the simulations fairly reproduced the microscopy observation results despite some deviation. The proposed method provides a foundation for the microstructure-based modelling of PMB performance in the future.

Given its promise for enhanced sustainability, electrified road (eRoad) has become a realistic option to support the clean and energy efficient Electrical Vehicles (EVs). To investigate the structural implications, this study focuses on a promising eRoad system which is a dynamic application of the Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) to provide electrical power wirelessly to EVs in-motion. A computational study is made in which, via a series of Finite Element Modeling (FEM) analyses on the eRoad structural response under various rolling conditions, is found that eRoads could have quite different pavement performances comparing to the traditional road (tRoad). Importantly, harsh loading due to vehicle braking or accelerating could incur higher potential of premature damage to the structure, whereas sufficient bonding at the contact interfaces would improve the structural integrity and delay the damage risks. In addition, localized mechanical discontinuities could also be a critical threat to the performance of the overall structure. To ensure that eRoads fulfill their sustainability promise, it is thus recommended that more focus should be placed on the possible measures, such as new structures and materials, to improve the structural integrity and thus the overall pavement performance of the integrated system.

Nowadays, many novel technologies are under investigations for making our road infrastructure functionbeyond providing mobility and embrace other features that can promote the sustainability developmentof road transport sector. These new roads are often referred to as multifunctional or ‘smart’ roads. Focusin this paper is given to the structural aspects of a particular smart road solution called electrified road or‘eRoad’, which is based on enabling the inductive power transfer technology to charge electric vehiclesdynamically. Specifically, a new mechanistic-based methodology is firstly presented, using a finiteelement simulation and an advanced constitutive model for the asphalt concrete materials. Based onthis, the mechanical responses of a potential eRoad structure under typical traffic loading conditions arepredicted and analysed thoroughly. The main contributions of this paper include thus: (1) introducing anew methodology for analysing a pavement structure purely based on mechanistic principles; (2) utilisingthis methodology for the investigation of a future multifunctional road pavement structure, such as aneRoad; and (3) providing some practical guidance for an eRoad pavement design and the implementationinto practice.

Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) technology is seen as a promising solution to be applied in an electrified road (eRoad) to charge Electric Vehicles (EVs) dynamically, i.e. while they are in motion. Focus in this study was placed on the dielectric loss effect of pavement surfacing materials on the inductive power transfer efficiency, induced after the integration of the technology into the physical road structure. A combined experimental and model prediction analysis was carried out to calculate this dielectric loss magnitude, based on which some preliminary conclusions as well as a prioritization of future focus needs were summarized in detail.

A coupled diffusion–flow model by phase-field method is proposed in this paper with the goal of predicting the storage stability of polymer-modified bitumen (PMB). In this study, the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations were coupled with a previously developed phase-field model for PMB phase separation. The coupled model was implemented in a finite element software package with experimentally calibrated parameters and reported data in the literature. Effects of the parameters (bitumen density and dynamic viscosity) that affected the gravity-driven flow and phase separation in PMB were evaluated at 180°C with the simulation results. The results indicate that the coupled diffusion–flow model can predict the storage stability (and instability) of PMBs. A good correlation between the simulation results and the previously reported experimental results (storage stability tube test) was observed. The different gravity-driven phase separation behaviors of PMBs might have resulted from the different composition of the equilibrium phases in the PMBs as well as the different densities and dynamic viscosities of the individual components (polymer and bitumen). A bigger polymer–bitumen density difference, a lower bitumen dynamic viscosity, or both caused a faster flow and separation in the PMB at storage temperature. The investigated variation of bitumen dynamic viscosity had a more significant influence than the investigated variation of bitumen density in this study, but this finding might depend on the specific values of the model parameters. With this study as a foundation, further experimental and numerical studies will be conducted to increase understanding of storage-stable PMB binders and to develop a more efficient test method for determining PMB storage stability.