Construction materials such as asphalt and cement concretes are the essential element affecting the durability performance of pavements. High-performance materials integrating innovative structures is a possible research direction to achieve promising long-term performance.

The inadequate durability of pavement materials and improper design of pavement structures will significantly deteriorate the stability and efficiency of the transportation system, and lead to economic losses. It is thus important to characterize the durability performance of pavement materials based on experimental study and predict the long-term performance with modelling analysis. This area is under fast development and numerous advanced technologies have been proposed to evaluate the long-term performance of pavement materials and structures, including remote sensing, self-sensing materials, defect detection based on artificial intelligence, etc.

This Special Issue aims to summarize the cutting-edge investigation on the long-term performance of pavement materials and structures. Submission of original research and review articles related to the innovative construction materials and characterization methods used for long-life pavement are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• High-performance materials (rubberized-asphalt, bio-asphalt, ultra-high performance concrete, etc.) and innovative structures (durable asphalt pavement based on life increment, prefabricated pavement, etc.) for durable pavement
• Advanced characterization methods (atomic force microscope, nano-indentation, small-angle scattering, etc.) for pavement materials (asphalt and cement concretes)
• Deterioration mechanism for the durability issues in asphalt and cement concrete pavements (moisture damage, rutting, corrosion, freeze-thaw, alkali-silica reaction, and sulfate-attack)
• Numerical modelling for pavement materials and structures
• Fracture mechanic model for the crack initiation and propagation of asphalt and cement concrete pavement subjected to traffic and environmental loads
• Non-destructive evaluation of pavement health monitoring (ground-penetrating radar, falling weight deflectometer, etc.)
• Application of artificial intelligence (AI) in pavement material characterization and design
• Multi-field coupling analysis for road infrastructures
• Prediction for the service life and long-term performance of road infrastructures