The next stage of research on self-repairing roads

Budimex S.A. and the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology are carrying out the SeHePa project entitled “The development and implementation of an innovative technology of self-repairing and highly durable asphalt surfaces”. The project is currently at the stage of industrial testing, which includes advanced work on a technology of manufacturing microcapsules with a self-repairing filling. This task involves the assessment of the self-repairing capabilities of the binder and the mineral and asphalt mixture in a laboratory.

As a result of numerous experiments whose aim was to test various types of capsule materials, researchers developed gelatine microcapsules with a self-repairing bioester filling. Researchers have confirmed that the microcapsules can crack and release the self-repairing agent when micro-cracks appear in the asphalt binder. Moreover, an improved self-repairing effect was observed during ductility tests, which measured the tensile strength and the deformation energy.

On the basis of positive results of tests on asphalt binders with microcapsules, it was concluded that there were grounds for the commencement of advanced tests on mineral and asphalt mixtures with these binders. Such tests will be carried out in the laboratories of the Warsaw University of Technology and the Central Laboratory of Budimex. When industrial tests are completed, we will start development studies, as part of which we will build test road sections. The project is scheduled to be finished in the second quarter of 2023.