Methods for assessing the self-healing properties of asphalt concrete

The article presents the results of a study of the ability of asphalt concrete to independently restore the state of the structure or improve the operational state of the material. The quality indicators that reflect the degree of efficiency of the developed self-healing technology are: the degree of restoration of the operational state of the structure; timeliness of initiation of the self-healing process; the speed of the restoration process, as well as the durability of the operational state after self-healing. The article formulates requirements for new methods for testing the self-healing ability of materials with encapsulated modifiers. It is shown that the self-healing efficiency is significantly higher for asphalt concretes with encapsulated AR polymer than for SMA, which used encapsulated oil. With the optimal content of encapsulated oil, the loss of strength of asphalt concrete samples during repeated compression is 1.4 times less, and for encapsulated AR polymer it is 1.6–2.1 times less. For SMA with encapsulated oil, the failure rate is 1.05, and with encapsulated AR polymer 1.7. The coefficient values reflect that the achievement of the critical value of the strength limit for asphalt concrete with encapsulated AR polymer occurs later by 61.9% than for asphalt concrete with encapsulated oil. The speed of the self-healing process of asphalt concrete using encapsulated oil is 10% faster than asphalt concrete without capsules, and with the use of encapsulated AR polymer – by 23%.