Dr Yuqing Zhang was sponsored to visit RWTH Aachen University as a Theodore von Karman fellow;
Three academic lectures were given to the engineering community at RWTH;
New research collaborations were initiated and inspried.
Adhesion between bitumen and aggregate mainly results from van der Waals internations for neutral minerals (e.g., quartz)
Adhesion is primarily due to the electrostatic interactions for alkali minerals (e.g., calcite, albite and microcline)
The bitumen-mineral debonding due to water is a thermodynamically favourable process.
Journal link for the paper or Aston Research Explorer link (for full text)
Global Challenges Research Fund - Networking Grant via Royal Academy of Medical Sciences
First trial of using the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, processed by the very unique intermediate pyrolysis reactor at European Bioenergy Research Institute at Aston.
Journal link for the paper or Aston Research Explorer link (for full text)
A good summary paper of constitutive modelling for asphalt mixtures at Prof. Robert Lytton research group in the past 8 years.
Pseudo J-integral Paris' law coefficients proved to be material properties, independent of loading rate, loading mode and temperature
You can determine the Paris' law coefficients using a monotonic load, rather than a time-consuming repeated load.
Journal link for the paper or Aston Research Explorer link (for full text)