Yihan Sun

The Utilization of Graphene Oxide in Traditional Construction Materials: Asphalt

In the advanced research fields of solar cell and energy storing materials, graphene and graphene oxide (GO) are two of the most promising materials due to their high specific surface area, and excellent electrical and physical properties. However, they was seldom studied in the traditional materials because of their high cost. Nowadays, graphene and GO are much cheaper than before with the development of production technologies, which provides the possibility of using these extraordinary materials in the traditional construction industry. In this paper, GO was selected as a nano-material to modify two different asphalts. Then a thin film oven test and a pressure aging vessel test were applied to simulate the aging of GO-modified asphalts. After thermal aging, basic physical properties (softening point and penetration) were tested for the samples which were introduced at different mass ratios of GO (1% and 3%) to asphalt. In addition, rheological properties were tested to investigate how GO could influence the asphalts by dynamic shearing rheometer tests. Finally, some interesting findings and potential utilization (warm mixing and flame retardants) of GO in asphalt pavement construction were explained.

Low temperature properties of UV aged asphalts containing layered double hydroxides modifier

Background In recent years, ultraviolet (UV) ageing of asphalt has attracted worldwide attention from researchers in the asphalt field. The UV radiation can result in the ageing of asphalt and thus influence its performance. So far, a variety of UV blocking materials have been investigated. Aim In this paper, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) were introduced as the UV blocking materials into three different asphalts (S70, S90 and SBS modified asphalt). Methods The low temperature properties, such as equivalent breaking point (EBP) and fatigue factor were tested and applied to estimate the UV blocking effects of LDHs on asphalts. Results The experimental results demonstrated that LDHs could effectively reduce the ageing index of S70 and S90, and lower the degradation rate of SBS modifier.

Heating Characteristics and Induced Healing Efficiencies of Asphalt Mixture via Induction and Microwave Heating

This paper investigates the heating characteristics and induced healing efficiencies of asphalt mixture containing steel fiber under induction heating and microwave heating. The heating characteristics of an asphalt mixture with different heating methods were studied with an infrared camera. The healing performance of the asphalt mixture specimens in different healing conditions were investigated by observing the crack closure and testing the fracture resistance recovery after healing. The results showed that the heating speed at the surface of asphalt mixture with induction heating was much higher than that with microwave machine heating, under a similar output power and the same method of radiation. While the temperature distribution within the asphalt mixture under induction heating was quite uneven, microwave heating resulted in a more uniform temperature distribution. The effective heating depth of microwave heating is much higher than that of induction heating. Gradient healing occurred within the sample heated with induction healing, while a uniform healing effect can be achieved with microwave heating.

Ice melting properties of steel slag asphalt concrete with microwave heating

The ice on the surface of asphalt pavement in winter significantly influences the road transportation safety. This paper aims at the improvement of the ice melting efficiency on the surface of asphalt pavement. The steel slag asphalt concrete was prepared and the high ice melting efficiency was achieved with the microwave heating. A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the ice melting performance of steel slag asphalt concrete, including the heating test, ice melting test, thermal conductivity test and so on. The results indicated that the microwave heating of steel slag concrete can improve the efficiency of deicing, mainly because the heating rates of steel slag asphalt mixture are much better than traditional limestone asphalt mixture. According to different thickness lever of ice, the final temperatures of each sample were very close to each other at the end of melting test. It is believed the thickness of the ice has a limited impact on the ice melting efficiency. According to the heating tests results, the bonding of ice and asphalt concrete is defined failure at the moment when the surface temperature of the ice reached 3 °C.

Ice melting properties of steel fiber modified asphalt mixtures with induction heating

In this paper, the ice melting performance of asphalt concrete with steel fibers was studied. Steel fiber modified asphalt mixtures were prepared, five different fiber amount of steel fiber modified asphalt mixtures were mixed to study their induction heating rate. The samples covered with different thickness of ice were heated with induction heating to study their ice melting efficency. It was proved that the induction heating of steel fiber modified asphalt mixtures could significantly improve their ice melting efficency compared with the natural condition. And it was found that the thickness of the ice had little influence on the induction heating rate of the asphalt concrete.