0:00:27.300,0:00:33.070
(Crackling)

0:00:47.797,0:00:49.413
(Thud)

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(Laughter)

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(Microwave beeping)

0:01:28.551,0:01:33.151
You probably all agree with me[br]that this is a very nice road.

0:01:33.151,0:01:35.030
It's made of asphalt.

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Asphalt is a very nice material [br]to drive on.

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But, not always,[br]especially not on days as today,

0:01:43.026,0:01:44.519
when it's raining a lot.

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Then you have a lot of splashing [br]water on the asphalt,

0:01:47.977,0:01:51.379
and especially if you ride [br]your bicycle and cars pass you,

0:01:51.379,0:01:55.169
then that's not very nice.

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Also, asphalt can create [br]a lot of noise.

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It's a noisy material,

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and if we build roads,[br]like in the Netherlands,

0:02:02.671,0:02:06.100
very close to cities, [br]then we would like a quiet road.

0:02:06.100,0:02:08.862
We have solutions for that.

0:02:08.862,0:02:14.006
The solution for that is [br]to make roads out of porous asphalt.

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Porous asphalt material [br]that we use now

0:02:17.341,0:02:19.917
in most of the highways[br]in the Netherlands,

0:02:19.917,0:02:23.237
it has pores, and water [br]can just rain through it,

0:02:23.237,0:02:25.160
like you see in this image.

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So all the rain water[br]will flow away to the side,

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and you have a road easy to drive on,

0:02:30.809,0:02:32.654
so no splashing water anymore.

0:02:32.654,0:02:35.876
Also the noise will disappear[br]into these pores,

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because it's very hollow,[br]all the noise will disappear,

0:02:38.633,0:02:42.219
so it's a very silent road.

0:02:42.219,0:02:45.443
It also has disadvantages, of course.

0:02:45.443,0:02:49.931
A disadvantage of this road[br]is that reveling can occur.

0:02:49.931,0:02:51.941
What is reveling?

0:02:51.941,0:02:56.278
You see that in this road [br]the stones at the surface come off.

0:02:56.278,0:03:00.096
So what actually happens,[br]first you get one stone,

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then several more,

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and more, and more, and more,

0:03:04.342,0:03:05.635
and then they --

0:03:05.635,0:03:07.038
I will not do that.

0:03:07.038,0:03:08.337
(Laughter)

0:03:08.337,0:03:10.625
But they can damage your windshield,

0:03:10.625,0:03:13.296
so you're not happy with that.

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Finally, this reveling can also lead[br]to more and more damage

0:03:17.301,0:03:19.196
like you see in the next image,

0:03:19.196,0:03:21.721
sometimes you can create [br]potholes with that.

0:03:21.721,0:03:23.121
(Microwave beeping)

0:03:23.121,0:03:24.968
Hah, it's ready.

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Potholes, of course, [br]can become a problem.

0:03:29.792,0:03:31.566
But we have a solution.

0:03:31.566,0:03:34.837
Here you can see how the damage[br]appears in this material.

0:03:34.837,0:03:36.693
It's a porous asphalt, like I said,

0:03:36.693,0:03:39.509
there is only a small amount [br]of binder between the stones,

0:03:39.509,0:03:43.223
and this binder, [br]due to weathering, due to UV light,

0:03:43.223,0:03:46.847
due to oxidation, [br]this binder, this bitumen,

0:03:46.847,0:03:49.436
the glue between the aggregates[br]is going to shrink.

0:03:49.436,0:03:51.448
And if it shrinks, it gets microcracks,

0:03:51.448,0:03:53.282
and it delaminates from the aggregates,

0:03:53.282,0:03:55.327
and then if you drive over the road

0:03:55.327,0:03:58.359
you kick out the aggregates,[br]which we just saw here.

0:03:59.026,0:04:02.623
To solve this problem,[br]we thought of self-healing materials.

0:04:02.623,0:04:05.740
If you can make these materials[br]self-healing,

0:04:05.740,0:04:08.546
then probably, we have a solution.

0:04:08.546,0:04:11.711
So what we do is use steel wool,

0:04:11.711,0:04:14.349
used to clean pans,[br]like you see in the picture,

0:04:14.349,0:04:17.958
and the steel wool we can cut [br]into very small pieces,

0:04:17.958,0:04:21.631
and these very small pieces,[br]we can mix into the bitumen.

0:04:21.631,0:04:25.969
Then you have asphalt with [br]very small pieces of steel wool in it.

0:04:26.629,0:04:29.570
Then you need a machine,[br]like you see here,

0:04:29.570,0:04:32.815
that is used for cooking,[br]an induction machine.

0:04:32.815,0:04:36.652
Induction can heat especially steel,[br]it's very good at that.

0:04:36.652,0:04:40.269
And then what you do is you melt --

0:04:40.269,0:04:42.725
you heat up the steel,[br]you melt the bitumen,

0:04:42.725,0:04:45.220
and the bitumen will flow[br]into these microcracks,

0:04:45.220,0:04:49.265
and the stones are again[br]fixed to the surface.

0:04:49.265,0:04:51.081
Today I used a microwave,

0:04:51.081,0:04:54.950
because I cannot bring the big [br]induction machine to heat on the stage,

0:04:54.950,0:04:57.597
so I microwaved, it's a similar system.

0:04:57.597,0:05:01.067
So I put the specimen in,[br]which I'm going to take out

0:05:01.067,0:05:03.345
to see what happened.

0:05:03.345,0:05:05.684
I need my gloves again.

0:05:22.126,0:05:24.937
This is the specimen coming out now.

0:05:25.307,0:05:29.737
We have such an industrial [br]machine in the lab,

0:05:29.737,0:05:31.809
to heat up the specimens.

0:05:31.809,0:05:33.810
We tested a lot of specimens there,

0:05:33.810,0:05:37.084
and then the government,[br]they actually saw our results,

0:05:37.084,0:05:38.637
and they thought,

0:05:38.637,0:05:40.959
Well, that's very interesting.[br]We have to try that.

0:05:40.959,0:05:43.707
So they donated to us [br]a piece of highway,

0:05:43.707,0:05:47.139
400 meters of the A58,[br]close to Vilssingen,

0:05:47.139,0:05:50.352
where we had to make[br]a test track to test this material.

0:05:50.352,0:05:55.264
So that's what we did here, you see [br]where we're making the test road,

0:05:55.264,0:06:00.327
and then, of course,[br]this road will last several years,

0:06:00.327,0:06:04.321
without any damage,[br]that's what we know from practice.

0:06:04.321,0:06:06.770
So we took a lot of samples[br]from this road,

0:06:06.770,0:06:08.576
and we tested them in the lab.

0:06:08.883,0:06:12.304
So we did aging on the samples,

0:06:12.304,0:06:14.155
did a lot of loading on it,

0:06:14.155,0:06:16.972
healed them with our induction machine,

0:06:18.801,0:06:21.197
healed them, tested them again.

0:06:21.197,0:06:24.643
Again broke them, healed them, [br]several times we can repeat that.

0:06:24.649,0:06:28.669
So actually the conclusion [br]from this research is that

0:06:28.669,0:06:33.529
if you go on the road every [br]4-years with our heating machine--

0:06:33.529,0:06:36.733
this is the big version we have made [br]to go on the real road --

0:06:36.733,0:06:39.742
if you go on the road every 4-years

0:06:39.742,0:06:42.137
we can double the service life [br]of this road,

0:06:42.137,0:06:45.710
which, of course, [br]saves a lot of money.

0:06:46.440,0:06:52.269
To conclude, I can say [br]that we made a material

0:06:52.269,0:06:55.659
using steel fibers,[br]additional steel fibers,

0:06:55.659,0:06:58.141
and using induction energy,

0:06:58.141,0:07:02.344
to really increase[br]the service life of the road,

0:07:02.344,0:07:05.029
even double the service life,

0:07:05.029,0:07:08.158
really save a lot of money[br]with very simple tricks.

0:07:08.158,0:07:10.880
And now you're of course [br]curious if it also worked.

0:07:10.880,0:07:13.637
So I still have the specimen [br]here, it's quite warm.

0:07:13.637,0:07:16.419
Actually it has to cool down first,

0:07:16.419,0:07:18.931
before I can show you[br]that the healing works,

0:07:18.931,0:07:21.485
but I will do a trial.

0:07:21.485,0:07:22.823
Let's see --

0:07:22.823,0:07:24.281
Yeah, it worked!

0:07:24.281,0:07:25.631
Thank you.

0:07:25.631,0:07:31.195
(Applause)