A Scientometric Analysis of Electrically Conductive Asphalt Concrete Technology

Plain asphalt typically is an insulator to the flow of electric current. It can be modified to conductive asphalt by adding various recyclable and environment friendly conductive additives in it. Such asphalt can provide smart and multifunctional environmentally sustainable applications in the pavement industry. Its production and performance behavior parameters are however yet to be entirely understood. This study presents an exhaustive review of literature on conductive asphalt using systematic literature review and scientometric analysis techniques to holistically understand conductive asphalt and current research developments in this field. The objective was to perform a critical review and scientometrically characterize the published research studies. Literature was acquired from credible research databases for study duration from 2009 to 2022, and subsequently filtered them using the PRISMA protocol to identify the most relevant documents. 62 bibliographic articles were consequently selected for the study. Systematic review identified the research themes and techniques adopted in the field of conductive asphalt technology, and the scientometric analysis quantified the characteristics of the articles. VOSviewer was utilized for visualizing the key findings of the quantitative analysis. Development of conductive asphalt has great research potential and improving its piezoresistivity and conductive network is the future research focus of smart asphalt technology. This review provided an in-depth understanding of conductive asphalt concrete's behavior, the emerging trends to support future studies, and helped to identify the current major research themes and the corresponding challenges.