With growing awareness of worldwide health, safety, and environmental issues, significant efforts have been carried out to save non-renewable fossil fuels, conserve energy, and reduce emissions in various industries. In pavement engineering, cold paving technologies based on asphalt emulsion—which greatly reduce energy consumption, dust, and gaseous emissions compared to conventional hot asphalt technologies—are the most environmentally friendly technologies. Furthermore, cold paving technologies are sometimes more suitable than hot asphalt technologies in pavement maintenance, preservation, and rehabilitation because their workability is less affected by environmental factors.

Although the benefits of cold paving technologies are evident, there are still scores of limitations in their application. Several days or weeks are required for cold asphalt emulsion mixtures to achieve the desired strength, due to the long breaking and film formation process of asphalt emulsion. Beyond this, the total pavement performance of cold asphalt emulsion mixtures can be weaker than those of hot mixtures. Nowadays, scientists around the world are studying and proposing innovative approaches to developing cold asphalt emulsion mixtures with the same performance as that of hot mix asphalt, and that can be used immediately after placement. Fundamental studies and innovative approaches to cold asphalt emulsion mixtures have recently been extensively reported.

For the above reasons, the aim of this Research Topic is to collect recent fundamental studies on cold asphalt paving technologies for roads and airfields, with a special emphasis on the chemical and physical mechanisms that control the mechanical behavior and performance of cold asphalt emulsion materials. This Research Topic also welcomes the submission of original research, state-of-the-art review, and perspectives on recent developments in cold paving technologies. Suggested contributions may include, but are not limited to:

• Characterization of high-performance asphalt emulsion for cold paving technologies
• Fundamental studies on the interaction of asphalt emulsion with inactive and active aggregates and fillers
• Laboratory studies on physical and mechanical properties of cold asphalt emulsion mixtures during curing
• Monitoring and predicting of performance of cold mixtures both in the laboratory and field
• Case studies considering the use of cold asphalt-emulsion technologies for both structural and surface layers
• Other asphalt emulsion-based materials in civil engineering, such as cement asphalt emulsion mortar, asphalt emulsion modified cement concrete, etc.

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Frontiers in Materials

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