The University of Swansea and King’s College London are collaborating with Chilean scientists to develop a self-healing asphalt system
The developing material and system would allow for self-healing roads to be created, providing a long-term solution for the UK’s pothole issues.
Potholes in the UK are estimated to cost £143.5m per year.
The self-healing roads will utilise artificial intelligence
Cracks in asphalt form when bitumen oxidises, causing it to harden and split apart. The system being designed by the team will reverse this process, causing the surface to “stitch” back together and making the road more durable.
This is achieved using materials that are small and porous, called “spores.” The spores are produced by plants and then filled with recycled oils, which release when the asphalt begins the oxidisation process and starts to crack, filling in the crack and sticking the bitumen back together.
In experiments, this process has had a surface heal a microcrack completely in under 60 minutes.
Artificial intelligence has been used in the team’s research to study organic molecules in fluids such as bitumen and to develop a model to accelerate atomistic simulations for use in researching bitumen oxidation and crack formation.
This will also reduce road-maintenance carbon output, as less maintenance will be required over a long period of time.
England’s road conditions are getting worse
In 2023, it was estimated that potholes caused damage to vehicles worth around £474,000,000.
Last year, the National Audit Office revealed in a report that the state of roads across England are getting worse, with only 48% of local roads (the roads that make up 98% of all of England’s road network) being rated as in good condition, 17% are in poor condition.
Maintenance is also on a decline as the backlog increases, with just 5.2% of A roads in England receiving maintenance in 2023.
Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras, a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Swansea University, said: “As part of our interdisciplinary study, we have brought together experts in civil engineering, chemistry, and computer science, combining this knowledge with the state-of-the-art AI tools of Google Cloud.
“We are proud to be advancing the development of self-healing asphalt using biomass waste and artificial intelligence. This approach positions our research at the forefront of sustainable infrastructure innovation, contributing to the development of net-zero roads with enhanced durability.
“A substantial portion of carbon emissions from roads is linked to asphalt production. As the highway sector increasingly prioritises carbon reduction to support the UK Government’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, advancing innovative bituminous materials for asphalt roads has become a key research priority.”
“To transition to more sustainable net-zero asphalt roads, the UK Government and private sector must invest in initiatives that drive innovation. Achieving this vision by 2050 will only be possible through the united efforts of academia, government, and industry.”
Dr Francisco Martin-Martinez, an expert in computational chemistry at King’s College London, said: “In our research, we want to mimic the healing properties observed in nature. For example, when a tree or animal is cut, their wounds naturally heal over time, using their own biology. Creating asphalt that can heal itself will increase the durability of roads and reduce the need for people to fill in potholes.
“We are also using sustainable materials in our new asphalt, including biomass waste. This will reduce our dependence on petroleum and natural resources. Biomass waste is available locally and everywhere, and it is cheap. Producing infrastructure materials from local resources like waste reduces the dependence on petroleum availability, which helps those areas of the world that have limited access to petroleum-based asphalt.”
