The use of lightweight aggregate saturated with PCM as a temperature stabilizing material for road surfaces

This paper presents the possibility of adding lightweight building aggregates to increase the stability – mechanical as well as thermal – of constructions and road objects. This stability can be achieved through saturating the porous granules of aggregate with a phase-change material (PCM) that allows the accumulation of solar heat. Intense solar radiation, especially during the summer, can cause the asphalt on road surfaces, bridges and parking lots to melt, thus protecting the structure from further overheating. The absence of asphalt layers results in thermal stress and strain conditions causes accelerated wear of road surface. Lightweight aggregate, previously used to reduce the weight of the structures, while maintaining the bearing capacity similar to that offered by conventional concrete structures, thereby gains a new functionality, as a temperature stabilizing material. The paper contains a review of several phase-change materials as well as a study justifying the choice of ceresin, a product of crude oil distillation, as a suitable material for such applications. Information about the aggregate and its possible applications, and a proposed method of saturating the aggregate with ceresin has also been collected and presented. With the help of quantitative research conducted through the use of differential scanning calorimetry, the characteristic of thermodynamic parameters of pure ceresin and expanded clay aggregate (Pollytag) saturated with ceresin was determined. Simulation tests conducted under real conditions on two asphalt surfaces (0.32 × 0.22 × 0.15 m), one of which contained the PCM while the other did not, have shown that even a small addition of ceresin (3% mass relative to the weight of the ground) causes a reduction in surface temperature of about 5 K within the tested temperature range of 318.15–338.15 K. - Highlights: • Road surface overheating on summer days may reach up to 344 K. • Solution against overheating through use of ECA with PCM (20%) has been proposed. • Theoretical estimations predicted reduction in surface temperature by 2.5 K. • Measured temperature reduction reached 5 K in real, 8.5 K in laboratory conditions. • Lightweight aggregate gains new application – temperature stabilizing material