Engineering Commons^™

Novel Eco-Friendly, Recycled Composites For Improved Ca Road Surfaces, Daniel Whisler, Rafael Gomez Consarnau, Ryan Coy

Mineta Transportation Institute

The continued use of structural plastics in consumer products, industry, and transportation represents a potential source for durable, long lasting, and recyclable roadways. Costs to dispose of reinforced plastics can be similar to procuring new asphalt with mechanical performance exceeding that of the traditional road surface.

This project examines improved material development times by leveraging advanced computational material models based on validated experimental data. By testing traditional asphalt and select carbon and glass reinforced composites, both new and recycled, it is possible to develop a finite element simulation that can predict the material characteristics under a number of loads virtually, …

Performance Testing Of Hot Mix Asphalt Containing Biochar, Shadi Saadeh, Yazan Al-Zubi, Basel Zaatarah

Mineta Transportation Institute

In recent years, researchers have been able to identify asphalt binder additives, such as polymers and bio-binder, that can enhance the rheological and mechanical properties of asphalt binders. Earlier studies show that utilizing bio-binder as a partial replacement for asphalt binder has shown promising results in both mechanical and sustainability aspects. Biochar additions improved binder viscosity and low-temperature characteristics. Biochar, which is a byproduct of producing bio-binder, has shown enhanced rheological and mechanical properties when used as an additive to the asphalt binder. In this study, the mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures containing Biochar were investigated. In addition, its color …

A New Materials And Design Approach For Roads, Bridges, Pavement, And Concrete, Alan Fuchs, Tathagata Acharya, Luis Cabrales, Jesse Bergkamp, Nyakundi Michieka

Mineta Transportation Institute

Increased understanding of demand for transport energy and how to improve road pavement materials would enable decision makers to make environmental, financial, and other positive changes in future planning and design of roads, bridges, and other important transportation structures. This research comprises three studies focused on pavement materials and a fourth study that examines energy demand within the road transportation sector. These studies are as follows:

1. A techno-economic study of ground tire rubber as an asphalt modifier;

2. A computational fluid dynamics analysis comparing the urban heat island effect of two different pavement materials – asphalt and Portland Cement …