UK Team Invents Self-Healing Road Surface To Prevent Potholes (theguardian.com) 34
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: For all motorists, but perhaps the Ferrari-collecting rocker Rod Stewart in particular, it will be music to the ears: researchers have developed a road surface that heals when it cracks, preventing potholes without a need for human intervention. The international team devised a self-healing bitumen that mends cracks as they form by fusing the asphalt back together. In laboratory tests, pieces of the material repaired small fractures within an hour of them first appearing. "When you close the cracks you prevent potholes forming in the future and extend the lifespan of the road," said Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras, a researcher on the project at Swansea University. "We can extend the surface lifespan by 30%."
Potholes typically start from small surface cracks that form under the weight of traffic. These allow water to seep into the road surface, where it causes more damage through cycles of freezing and thawing. Bitumen, the sticky black substance used in asphalt, becomes susceptible to cracking when it hardens through oxidation. To make the self-healing bitumen, the researchers mixed in tiny porous plant spores soaked in recycled oils. When the road surface is compressed by passing traffic, it squeezes the spores, which release their oil into any nearby cracks. The oils soften the bitumen enough for it to flow and seal the cracks. Working with researchers at King's College London and Google Cloud, the scientists used machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to model the movement of organic molecules in bitumen and simulate the behaviour of the self-healing material to see how it responded to newly formed cracks. The material could be scaled up for use on British roads in a couple of years, the researchers believe. Google published a blog post with more information about the "self-healing" asphalt.
Potholes typically start from small surface cracks that form under the weight of traffic. These allow water to seep into the road surface, where it causes more damage through cycles of freezing and thawing. Bitumen, the sticky black substance used in asphalt, becomes susceptible to cracking when it hardens through oxidation. To make the self-healing bitumen, the researchers mixed in tiny porous plant spores soaked in recycled oils. When the road surface is compressed by passing traffic, it squeezes the spores, which release their oil into any nearby cracks. The oils soften the bitumen enough for it to flow and seal the cracks. Working with researchers at King's College London and Google Cloud, the scientists used machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to model the movement of organic molecules in bitumen and simulate the behaviour of the self-healing material to see how it responded to newly formed cracks. The material could be scaled up for use on British roads in a couple of years, the researchers believe. Google published a blog post with more information about the "self-healing" asphalt.
Re:30% gain (Score:4, Interesting)
There's nothing in TFA about the cost of this new technology. Care to enlighten us on where you found this info?
Re: 30% gain (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
sources?
Labor is a huge cost in addition to material cost. My city estimated it cost $600 to change a street light; back before LED those were cheap, it was mostly labor cost.
Re: (Score:2)
Big road, little spores (Score:3)
Triffids. (Score:2)
How many m^2 of club moss (for spore powder) would be required per m^2 of roadway? That's a lotta lycopodium.
I'm more concerned about what happens when these spores become aware and motile.
Just wait a few more years (Score:2)
These allow water to seep into the road surface, where it causes more damage through cycles of freezing and thawing.
So, global warming should solve the problem soon, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Just wait a few more years (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even that's not the thing, since weather is chaotic. Most places will get both warmer and colder, they will just mostly be warmer most of the time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Only if it gets so warm that it never freezes.
solar roadways (Score:1)
I'm holding out for https://solarroadways.com/ [solarroadways.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Article says nothing about real-world testing (Score:5, Insightful)
Lab tests are important... but let's wait and see how this works - or doesn't work - in the real world before we get too excited.
Cue (Score:2)
"Do. Or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda
Star Trek takes to the streets (Score:3)
Now when you take the car out for a spin, you will be going for a spore drive.
Re: (Score:2)
It's going to work... (Score:2)
...the day someone is coming up with a "subscription model" for it that will cost you (and me) an arm and a leg.
Oils? (Score:1)
When the road surface is compressed by passing traffic, it squeezes the spores, which release their oil into any nearby cracks
Exactly what you want, more oil on the road to reduce traction and increase crashes.
Re: Oils? (Score:2)
That was my first thought as well.
Plus, how often will you need to top off the oil?
Kudos for trying something, and also got getting global news coverage, but I would not be buying stick if these guys are selling.
Re: Oils? (Score:2)
That was supposed to be 'stock' not 'stick'.
Oh well, who gives a shot.
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly what you want, more oil on the road to reduce traction and increase crashes.
You don't seem to know that tarmac is already self-healing because of the oils in asphalt, but it loses these properties over time because the oil doesn't all stay in it, so this is only a way of keeping oil in it for longer.
Old Idea, not new (Score:2)
creep (Score:2)
Kudos to the team if they can make a surface plastic enough to self-heal yet not susceptable to rut formation or excessive wear and that doesn't leech ugly chemicals into the environment.
You can make a living with hot tar! (Score:1)
You know what they USED to do in Oklahoma (and maybe still do) is in the fall they send crews around with a truck full of hot, liquid tar, a hose and a nozzle, and they drive slowly down the streets and fill in every crack with hot tar. It seems to work. I don't live there now so I don't know if it is still done. I know up here in Northern KY they would much rather wait for the pothole to get 3 feet deep before trying to fill it.
Re: (Score:2)
I definitely used to see crack sealing projects in California. I haven't in ages. I'm not sure how well they work here. We have a pretty big range of temperatures to deal with in most of the state, so I don't see a lot of that really plush dark black stuff. And when I do, it usually has sags in it. ISTR that there's also supposed to be a crack patching compound made from recycled tires but I don't know anything about that really, though I did find https://www.wrmeadows.com/cr-9... [wrmeadows.com]
Is it safe? (Score:2)
Why would I want a road covered in oil? (Score:2)
UK has just invented .. (Score:2)
They used AI (Score:2)
Finally, AI helped solve something instead of just the hype it has been so far. Oh! Wait a second. Are we going to see this road before Google's AGI is here in about 5 years from now?