Utilization Of High-Speed Microwave Heating Technology And Equipment On Bituminous Pavement Maintenance

There exist many drawbacks in the traditional technology of the bituminous pavement maintenance, such as low-efficiency of heat transmission, serious environmental pollution, long working time, and low regeneration capability, etc. In a word, the current technology is costly and labor-intense, while, the outcome is unsatisfactory. Development of an environment-friendly and cost-efficient the bituminous pavement maintaining technology is, therefore, in a great need.Microwave heating is an emerging technology in the field of the bituminous pavement maintenance, which features high-speed and reliable performance, effective energy utilization, and many other advantages compared with the traditional technology. In this paper, the current the bituminous pavement maintaining technology is reviewed, then the development and utilization of microwave heating in the bituminous pavement maintenance are described. Through comparison, the advantages of microwave heating technology are highlighted. Furthermore, a formula is developed to calculate the key parameters of the asphalt concrete materials when microwave heating is applied. Based on the studies, a high-speed microwave heating equipment on the bituminous pavement maintenance is designed.Finally, the efficiency of the new equipment is tested in ANSYS, a simulation software, and in a field study. The key parameters derived from these two tests, including the electromagnetic field of the microwave-conducting tube and the heating temperature field are comparable, which indicates that ANSYS simulation is accurate. Therefore, in the future, the optimization of the newly-designed equipment would be conducted in ANSYS alone.