Resilient Roads Research Group

The Resilient Roads Research group focuses on utilizing both experimental and numerical methods to design and develop sustainable pavement materials while improving their standards in terms of quality, durability, and performance. We study the chemomechanics and the mechanical and rheological properties of a multitude of bitumen and novel binders, evaluate how and why the binder materials deteriorate over time, and characterize, develop, and tweak numerous additives and bitumen rejuvenators to improve the micro and macro scale properties of bitumen and polymer modified bitumen. We develop high-performance and sustainable pavement materials driven by social and environmental impacts.

The group is part of the Section of Pavement Engineering in the Faculty Of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft, ranked in the top 10 of QS Engineering & Technology Universities worldwide. The group consists of Master, Doctoral, and Postdoctoral researchers in charge of several projects. These cover topics such as: the fundamentally describing bituminous materials, measuring the impact of novel additives and rejuvenators in the durability and performance of bitumen, studying and improving self-healing properties of bituminous mixtures, characterizing the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of modified bitumens, designing rejuvenators for recycling RAPs containing both traditional aged bitumen and polymer modified bitumen, and innovating ways to perform cold in-place recycling of conventional and artificial bitumens.

The lab we use is part of the Section of Pavement Engineering (Engineering Structures), and is fully equipped to perform state-of-the-art research spanning over multiple size domains. We can perform chemical and rheological experiments and can subject samples to diverse types of mechanical loading and environmental conditions. Our powerful parallel computing facilities enable us to develop and apply advanced numerical models to enhance and corroborate experimental findings. Visit the Research section for more information!

Our group, in conjunction with the Section of Pavement Engineering, TNO, and the Rijkswaterstaat, is proudly part of the Knowledge-based Pavement Engineering project (KPE-CEAB and KPE-Healing and Fatigue), designed to develop novel pavement materials. We are currently facing an unprecedented number of challenges, which means that students and researchers from a multitude of scientific disciplines are welcome!

• 05.02.2023 - Members of our group have been granted full, unrestricted access to the new supercomputer at TU Delft, DelftBlue, comprised of 238 nodes and over 11000 CPU cores! MD simulations have been successfully performed on over 1200 CPU cores, shortening the time required to complete microsecond long simulations to a few hours.
• 31.01.2023 - PhD candidate Shisong Ren was awarded the first prize in the IACAP Outstanding Graduate Student Award, which is funded by the International Association for Chinese Infrastructure Professionals (IACIP).
• 03.01.2023 - Congratulations Mr. Shisong Ren for publishing an article on Materials & Design titled Molecular dynamics simulation and experimental validation on the interfacial diffusion behaviors of rejuvenators in aged bitumen.
• 07-10.01.2022 - Xueyan, Peng, Panos, attended the 103rd Transport Research Board (TRB) Conference in Washington DC, USA.
• 08.12.2022 - Xueyan Group in partnership with TNO hosted a Workshop on the Characterization and Evaluation of Asphalt Binder properties on 8th Dec 2022. Five speakers from Europe and the US gave presentations about the state-of-art evaluation methods for the bitumen binder properties.
• 01.11.2022 - Mr. Eli Assaf received a 'Go' during his Go/Nogo presentation and is now officially a PhD Candidate. Special thanks to Dr. Xueyan Liu, Dr. Peng Lin, Dr. Sayeda Nahar, Dr. Bijoy Bera, and Dr. Sandra Erkens for being part of the evaluation committee.