CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS, vol.425, pp.1-14, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
In the fracture-based healing test, asphalt specimens generally break into two halves and the aggregates in the
crack path also break. In this study, the effect of aggregate damage on the self-healing performance of asphalt
concrete was studied. To achieve this, semi-circle asphalt specimens were produced. Then, they were broken
using the Semi-circle bending test (SCB) at different temperatures (i.e., − 20, − 10, 0, 10, and 20 ◦C) to create
various aggregate damage situations. Next, the fracture surfaces of specimens were photographed and the percentages of damage types (i.e., adhesive, cohesive, and broken aggregates) were obtained by using image processing techniques. After the specimens were healed at a constant 55 ◦C, the SCB test was applied again to
measure the strength of the specimens and to calculate healing performance. Finally, fracture surfaces were
photographed again. According to findings, as breaking temperatures increase, broken aggregates and adhesive
damage decrease. Cohesive damage, on the other hand, rose with the high breaking temperature. Healing performance was better at low breaking temperatures. A positive correlation was found between aggregate damage
and healing levels, but it was explained as a spurious relationship. The real correlation was negative which was
obtained from a second dataset.