Research
A connected research programme
Our research asks how pavement materials can be made more durable and sustainable when their constituents, construction histories and service environments are inherently variable. We work across experiments, physical interpretation and quantitative models, with an emphasis on results that can be explained and used in practice.
Theme 01
Asphalt materials and rheology
Asphalt is a temperature- and time-dependent material whose performance changes with ageing, modification and interaction with aggregates. We study binder and mixture behaviour across these scales to identify descriptors that are physically meaningful and useful for performance assessment.
Questions we ask
- How do ageing and modification change the linear viscoelastic response of asphalt binders?
- How do compaction energy and aggregate structure influence mixture degradation and volumetrics?
- How should rutting and damage be characterised when laboratory measurements show substantial scatter?
- Which model parameters describe mechanisms rather than merely improving curve fit?
Methods
Rheological characterisation, frequency and temperature response, mixture volumetrics, wheel-tracking data, damage analysis, probabilistic modelling and fractional-order representations.
Representative contributions
Probabilistic rutting curves; probabilistic characterisation of damage characteristic curves; viscoelastic evaluation of waste-polyethylene-modified binders; ongoing fractional-rheology and compaction-degradation studies.
Theme 02
Sustainable pavement materials
Alternative materials are valuable only when environmental benefit is evaluated alongside engineering performance, construction feasibility and uncertainty. Our work investigates waste-derived and resource-efficient constituents for asphalt and pavement applications.
Current materials and questions
- Waste polyethylene and warm-mix additives for asphalt binders and mixtures
- Steel slag and carbonated steel slag as pavement aggregate
- Biochar and bio-oil or linseed-oil systems for binder modification
- Reclaimed asphalt and risk-aware mixture design
- The balance among performance, variability, embodied impact and field practicality
Theme 03
Pervious concrete
Pervious concrete must provide sufficient connected void space for drainage while retaining the strength and integrity required for pavement use. Our research treats this as a coupled material-design problem rather than a single-property optimisation task.
Research programme
- Aggregate packing and gradation design
- Compaction, specimen geometry and scale effects
- Porosity, pore structure, permeability and compressive response
- Noise, reflectance and other multifunctional characteristics
- Statistical modelling, sensitivity analysis and inverse or reliability-based design
Representative contributions
This programme has produced recent peer-reviewed work on reliability-based gradation optimisation, hydrological–mechanical trade-offs and the decoupling of geometry and compaction effects.
Theme 04
Uncertainty and data-informed engineering
Material tests and pavement predictions are never perfectly repeatable. Instead of hiding this variability behind a single best-fit value, we quantify it and examine how it changes design decisions.
Approach
- Probability distributions and uncertainty propagation
- Reliability-based and risk-aware optimisation
- Gaussian-process regression and global sensitivity analysis
- Machine learning used with grouped validation and interpretable physical structure
- Decision frameworks that expose performance trade-offs and tail risk
Representative contributions
This theme connects the group’s asphalt, pervious-concrete and sustainable-materials research and gives the programme a distinctive intellectual identity.
Developing direction
Pavement systems and field evaluation
A developing strand of work links material-level evidence with pavement-system response. Current activities include pavement evaluation and design review, geogrid-reinforced systems, backcalculation and the interpretation of field or consultancy measurements. This section grows through documented case studies rather than broad capability claims.
Explore the scholarly record
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