Road Performance and Self-Healing Property of Bituminous Mixture Containing Urea-Formaldehyde Microcapsules

Urea-formaldehyde (UF) is a common shell material for self-healing microcapsules; however, the influence of urea-formaldehyde microcapsules (UFMs) on the road performance of bituminous mixtures and the sensitivity of their healing abilities remains unclear. In this paper, UFMs were prepared via in situ polymerization (ISP), followed by an investigation into the road performance of UFM self-healing bituminous mixtures through various tests, including wheel tracking, immersed Marshall, freeze-thaw splitting, low-temperature bending, and three-point bending fatigue tests. Subsequently, the impact of the damage degree, healing duration, and temperature on the self-healing property was discussed. The results indicated that incorporating 3 wt% UFMs into bitumen significantly improved the high-temperature stability and fatigue resistance of the bituminous mixture; for example, its dynamic stability and fatigue life could be increased by about 16.5% and 10%, respectively. However, it diminished the thermal crack resistance, as evidenced by decreases in bending tensile strength and strain by 3.7% and 10.1%, respectively. And it did not markedly improve the moisture susceptibility. Additionally, the maximum improvement observed in the healing rate was about 9%. Furthermore, the healing duration and temperature positively influenced the bituminous mixture's self-healing, whereas the degree of damage exerted a negative impact, with a relatively significant effect.