Assessing solar heating of binders to be applied in roofs, roads or heat collectors

Enhancing the energy efficiency of buildings, roads, or other applications involves, as a main challenge, the development of innovative materials with customised thermomechanical properties and thermal energy capabilities while maintaining cost effectiveness. These materials can be designed to find application as solar heat absorbers or to prevent issues related to urban heat island. To that end, a reliable assessment of the material behaviour under solar irradiation is required. With this aim, this work proposed an experimental setup that has been simulated by CFD and built to test different bituminous and non-bituminous binders with potential use in roofing, road and heat collectors. Key words. Bitumen, non-bituminous binder, solar behaviour, CFD.