A Laboratory Study on Heating and Drying of Pavement Materials Using Microwave Energy

"The paper shows the first results of a laboratory study that analyzes microwave heating for aggregates and asphalt mixtures. In the study heating and drying data from microwave and conventional oven are compared in order to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of microwave heating for road materials. Moreover several properties of different materials are investigated for detecting those that mostly affect the microwave process. The overall objective of the whole research to which this study belongs is to check the possibility of including the microwave heating technology in the manufacturing and recycling processes of asphalt mixture and consequently reduce environmental and health risks with an increase of the efficiency of the whole process. Present results are promising, confirm several literature findings about the advantages of microwave heating and show the great influence of aggregates nature, size and mass, water content and bitumen content on the heating processes, identifying those variables that can influence the design of microwave plants"