News: 8 December 2022

The second workshop for the Knowledge-based Pavement Engineering - Characterization and Evaluation of Asphalt Binder Property (KPE-CEAB) project was held on December 8th, 2022. The KPE initiative brings together Rijkswaterstaat, TNO, and TU Delft in a unique collaboration to foster long-term scientific and applied knowledge of asphalt's lifespan. As part of the CEAB project, the second workshop focused on enhancing current understanding of shifts in the binder market and identifying potential sources of change related to property, quality, and consistency.

The workshop, attended by 50 in-person participants from RWS, road construction contractors, and research institutes across the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as 80 online participants from around the world, was opened by Prof. Sandra Erkens and Dr. Xueyan Liu. Dr. Sayeda Nahar and Dr. Peng Lin highlighted the progress of the CEAB project and its use of advanced experimental methodologies and molecular dynamic simulations to characterize the properties of approximately 20 different types of bitumen binders from various sources, countries, and fabrication processes.

The workshop also featured presentations from Dr. Hassan Tabatabaee from Cargill Asphalt Solutions (US), Dr. Jeramie Adams from Western Research Institute (US), and Jeroen Besamusca from Kuwait Petroleum Research and Technology (Netherlands) on the latest characterization and evaluation methods for bitumen.

Throughout the workshop, attendees engaged in meaningful discussions, offering valuable insights and suggestions for the CEAB project. The second CEAB workshop proceedings, which summarize the presentations and discussions, will be published online for further reference.