Self-Healing Asphalt: A Systematic Bibliometric Analysis for Identification of Hot Research Topics during the 2003–2018 Period

Abstract

The use of self-healing asphalt is a good option to extend the lifetime of roads and to improve the sustainability of pavement management systems. A bibliometric analysis based on the Scopus database was carried out to review the global research related to self-healing asphalt from 2003 to 2018 and to identify relevant quantitative characteristics from the research in this period. The results from this analysis revealed that the number of accumulated publications followed an exponential growth, which confirmed the relevance that this research topic has gained during the last years. The study revealed that China was the most productive country, followed by the Netherlands, where the most prolific institution is located: Delft University of Technology. Some important research features of the two main approaches most frequently used to develop asphalt mixtures with enhanced self-healing abilities (external heating and encapsulated rejuvenating agents) are compiled in this work.

Research Hotspots and Development Trends on Recycled Construction Materials in Pavement Engineering: A Bibliometric Evaluation

“…VOSviewer version 1.6.16 (offered by Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden, The sNetherlands) was used to network analyze the internal relationship of the mass of studied literatures. It can generate a variety of graphs based on bibliometric relationships, such as co-citation graphs of authors and co-occurrence graphs of keywords [ 38 , 39 ]. The map and network of all papers were obtained by the following process: at the beginning, the data of 1218 publications from WoS database were downloaded for VOSviewer analysis.…”

Smart Asphalt Mixtures: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Research Trends

“…These include mapping of publications on asphalt pavement and asphalt bitumen materials [49], research trends in pavement management [50], recent advancements in permeable pavement systems [51], and studies related to pavement distresses [52,53]. Some of them are concerned with smart asphalt mixtures, but only related to one single functionality, including, for example, Abejón [54], who investigated self-healing. The analysis of different bibliometric indicators can evaluate the productivity and quality of publications related to applying new capabilities in asphalt mixture.…”

Investigation of Asphalt Self-Healing Capability Using Microvasculars Containing Rejuvenator: Effects of Microvascular Content, Self-Healing Time and Temperature

“…Research has been carried out on the effect of mixed conductive additives on the distribution of steel fibres [ 6 ]. The bituminous material is heated unevenly, the heating temperature needs to be controlled easily, and this method accelerates the ageing of bituminous materials [ 7 ]. The second is the microencapsulation method, also known as in situ rejuvenation [ 8 ].…”