Approach
The DURABROADS Project aims at providing economic and sustainable growth in Europe by promoting a more durable and competitive construction and rehabilitation of road infrastructures.
Different factors need to be considered in the design of pavements such as technologies, properties of construction materials, higher traffic, unusual weather changes, etc. Traditional design methods need to be adapted to current new conditions. Consequently, the consortium will work in the identification of the best practices from successful previous researches. Furthermore, the optimization of the road-related procedures will be performed to provide to road operators more affordable, safer and environment-friendly practices improving road asset management.
The consortium has also built the project considering tough financial difficulties for the public coffers. As traffic demand increases and funding becomes more limited, efficient design of more durable materials and pavement sections is of major importance. In this project, different nanomaterials will be analyzed, characterized and selected regarding its size, quality and shape in order to find the most suitable ones for binders and polymers modification. The characterization of carbon nanomaterials will include scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermo-analytical methods, such as thermo-gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA and DSC respectively), and X-ray diffraction.
In addition, the bonding interaction between the selected nanomaterial and the most common polymers used in asphalt production will be investigated to produce a polymer/nanofiller composite which will be used as high-performing bitumen additive as well. Composites developed following these procedures will be subjected to interfacial adhesion studies, in order to find out the most favourable polymer-nanomaterial systems.
The research will conclude with a practical test implementing two DURABROADS pavement sections for validation in a real case scenario. The consortium will elaborate guidelines and recommendations of the best practices identified during DURABROADS project. In addition, a guideline for introducing DURABROADS concepts in real Green Public Procurement processes and recommendations about the next steps for the future standardization of DURABROADS products will be performed. In parallel, partners will ensure a market deployment of DURABROADS materials and techniques in European roads with views to a global implementation contributing to Europe 2020 objectives.
