Multiscale Characterization and Modeling of
Long-Term Aging in Asphalt Pavements
Friday, October 14, 2022
12 PM ET – 1 PM ET
The world’s economic growth and environmental sustainability depend on the durability and resiliency of its transportation infrastructure. Asphalt pavements represent about 94 percent of paved roads in the U.S. The formulation of paving asphalts has changed considerably due to various economic, technical, and environmental reasons. Many of these changes led to underperforming binders that are susceptible to long-term aging, which leads to stiff and brittle materials that are prone to cracking and surface distresses. As a result, state highway agencies are increasingly experiencing premature failures of newly constructed pavements despite general compliance with existing material specifications, mix and pavement design standards, and construction methods. This topic has many aspects, and this presentation will focus on the multiscale characterization and modeling of asphalt materials subjected to long-term oxidative aging. A newly developed laboratory simulation procedure and a predictive model of field aging will be presented. Additionally, this aging model is being integrated with viscoelastic continuum damage material modeling into next-generation pavement structural analysis that considers material properties as a function of pavement service life. These research outcomes provide bases to improve binder formulation, mixture design, and pavement analysis to save taxpayers’ money and achieve more sustainable transportation infrastructure.
Dr. Michael Elwardany is an assistant professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Before joining Florida State University, he was the manager of the Asphalt Binder and Mixture Laboratories at the Federal Highway Administration – Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. He earned his Ph.D. from NCSU with a focus on the multiscale characterization, laboratory simulation, and modeling of long-term aging in asphalt pavements. He was the program manager for paving asphalts at the Western Research Institute for three years. Dr. Elwardany served as the principal investigator or project manager to a National Cooperative Highway Research Program Project, a USDOT Small Business Innovation Research Project, and the Asphalt Industry Research Consortium. He is the original developer of the Aging Duration Maps, the internal restraint damage mechanism model, and a couple of binder rheological and failure parameters. His work was published in 24 journal papers, 30 conference papers, and 7 final project reports.
