Materials

String used to bind asphalt together in green alternative to bitumen

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Tests suggests string could be used to reinforce road materials in place of environmentally damaging bitumen
Empa
A robotic arm lays out a preprogrammed string pattern to reinforce the asphalt as part of road material research at Empa
Empa
Researchers formed five layers of gravel and thread inside a test box
Empa
Experimental road material undergoes testing at Empa
Empa
Tests suggests string could be used to reinforce road materials in place of environmentally damaging bitumen
Empa
Stress testing of the string and gravel combination in a test box
Empa
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Given roads are everywhere and involve some carbon-intensive processes to build, scientists are investigating how alternative materials could make the whole process more sustainable. We've seen how this could include everything from coffee grounds, to discarded face masks to building rubble, and now a team of researchers in Switzerland has opened up another interesting possibility, demonstrating how patterns of string carefully laid by robotic arms can be used to bind asphalt together in place of environmentally damaging bitumen, resulting in greener roads that are also easier to recycle after use.

The research was carried out at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and actually stems from an interesting art and science project, in which pillars were made from a mix of gravel and string. Rather than using concrete to bind the loose stones together, the gravel was interlocked with a thread that held the whole structure in place. The resulting pillars reached heights of 80 cm (2.6 ft), and in pressure testing were capable of withstanding loads equal to 20 tonnes (22 tons).

This led the scientists involved to wonder if a similar technique could be applied to road construction, where asphalt, also made up of rocks in various sizes, is usually combined with a bitumen binding material to produce the finished product. Using string to reinforce the roads instead could offer a number of advantages over bitumen, which needs to be extracted from crude oil and generates air pollutants during production and use.

The experiments started with a rubber mat laid on the bottom of a test box to simulate the deformable bed beneath the pavement. Onto this layers of gravel and string were stacked on top of one another, with a robotic arm laying out the string in a pre-programmed pattern. The string featured is the same as that used by Swiss citizens to wrap up waste paper, in keeping with the sustainable theme of the research. This process was repeated until five layers of gravel and thread were formed inside a test box.

Stress testing of the string and gravel combination in a test box
Empa

Load tests were then carried out which revealed that the subsurface road material made of gravel stones and thread was able to withstand pressures equal to half a tonne (0.55 ton) without displacing too many of the stones. These tests were complemented with computer modeling that helped the researchers track the movement of the stones and the tensile forces on the threads.

The team notes that the current form of the material is nowhere near ready for use in roads, but believe these early experiments demonstrate the potential of the approach. From here, the researchers plans to carry out dynamic load testing with rolling pressure to more closely simulate the real-world conditions of roads, and also test out how different patterns and mesh widths of the string could impact the material's stability.

"We want to find out how a recyclable pavement could be produced in the future," explains team member Dr. Martin Arraigada. "To do this, we are using digitalized construction methods in road construction for the first time."

The video below offers a look at the technology in action.

Source: Empa

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7 comments
CAVUMark
This type of research is great. Now find some string that won't decompose.
paul314
What does this do to the time required to lay a road section? One great thing about the conventional stuff is that you can put hundreds of meters of road down in a day and drive on it the day after.
Username
How does it perform without the box? Also, there still has to be a top layer.
Vernon Miles Kerr
One can imagine highways just being "rolled-out" while being dynamically created by a "highway construction" machine. Let's hope the end product is less noisy than normal roadsurfaces. The din of tires on pavement is the biggest noise-polluter on today's Earth, IMHO. Creating mufflers for the exhaust system should have been only a first step.
Signguy
Vernan..yup; where I live, the traffic (pre covid) was 300 cars PER HOUR!!! THE NOISE COMES FROM THE TIRES!!!
Kevin Ritchey
Roman roads have lasted for centuries. Just imagine if the stones used were made to fit together even better by shaping them more precisely. No asphalt used there.
Don Duncan
Bitumen is a bi-product of crude refinement. It is excellent as a binder/waterproofer in adobe. This eliminates the need for Portland cement.