Microwave-healing performance of modified asphalt mixtures with flake graphite and exfoliated graphite nanoplatelet

[Display omitted] •The fracture energy of control and graphite modified asphalt mixture was measured.•The original fracture strength of control and modified asphalt mixture was analyzed.•The self-healing performance of asphalt mixture with cyclic fracture-microwave healing tests was evaluated.•The DIC calibration of relative strain ratio was used to evaluate the healed fracture energy.•The cohesive finite element model with a crack path was established to accurately simulate facture behavior. This paper computationally and experimentally investigated the microwave healing performance of graphite (flake graphite and exfoliated graphite nanoplatelet (xGNP)) modified asphalt mixture. The original fracture energy and strength were first measured for the modified asphalt mixture through the disk-shaped compact tension test. Then the micro-wave healing performance (recovered fracture energy and strength) were further examined. All these were enhanced with the added carbon materials. The recovered fracture strengths were also compared with FE cohesive zone model (CZM) simulation with digital image correlation (DIC) calibrated parameters. The predicted recovered fracture strength had good agreement with the experimental measurement.