This article presents the latest progress in research on tire–pavement contact behavior. Firstly, the tire–pavement contact characteristics and their influencing factors are summarized. Then, the measurement methods and theoretical research on tire–pavement contact behavior are reviewed, and the advantages and shortcomings of different methods are compared and analyzed. Finally, analysis in the field of pavement engineering is summarized based on contact behavior. This article suggests a few key research directions: Tire–pavement contact behavior is influenced by multiple factors; therefore, multi-physical field-coupling analyses need to be carried out. Tire–pavement contact tests are mostly static and non-standardized, and it is a future trend to develop high-precision, low-cost, and standardized instruments that can measure dynamic contact. Theoretical research models rarely involve environmental factors; a contact model of the tire, pavement, and environment needs to be constructed that can truly describe the contact process. There is a relationship between contact characteristics and pavement performance; pavement performance evaluation indexes need to be established based on tire–pavement contact characteristics in the future.

Microwave heating technology is a promising method for asphalt pavement maintenance and de-icing; however, it requires the material to have a good microwave-absorbing ability and can also result in asphalt aging. It is therefore important to develop microwave-sensitive materials used for asphalt pavement maintenance and study the effects of microwave heating on asphalt aging. This study evaluates the electromagnetic characteristics of limestone powder and magnetite powder and explores the influence of microwave heating on the high-temperature rheological and fatigue properties of microwave sensitivity enhanced asphalt mastic with magnetite powder. A vector network analyzer was used to measure the electromagnetic characteristics of limestone powder and magnetite powder. The magnetite filler asphalt mastics were prepared and subjected to microwave heating for 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, and 4 h. Temperature sweep tests, frequency sweep tests, and linear amplitude sweep (LAS) tests were conducted for magnetite filler asphalt mastics before and after microwave heating. LAS experimental results were analyzed based on viscoelastic continuum damage (VECD) theory. The results show that magnetite powders have better electric field energy storage ability, higher dielectric loss and magnetic loss, and better microwave heating efficiency. The complex shear modulus (G*) and rutting factor (G* × (sin δ)⁻¹) rapidly decrease with the increase in temperature, indicating that the mastics’ ability to resist deformation decreases sharply. The longer the microwave heating time for magnetite filler asphalt mastics, the faster the high-temperature rheological properties decreased as the temperature rose. The fatigue life of magnetite filler asphalt mastics significantly decreases with the increase in strain and microwave heating time. It is suggested to add anti-aging agents into asphalt materials to reduce the aging effect in the process of microwave heating. This study provides a reference for the application of microwave heating technology in asphalt pavement maintenance.

Collecting pavement texture information is crucial to understand the characteristics of a road surface and to have essential data to support road maintenance. Traditional texture assessment techniques often require expensive equipment and complex operations. To ensure cost sustainability and reduce traffic closure times, this study proposes a rapid, cost-effective, and non-invasive surface texture assessment technique. This technology consists of capturing a set of images of a road surface with a mobile phone; then, the images are used to reconstruct the 3D surface with photogrammetric processing and derive the roughness parameters to assess the pavement texture. The results indicate that pavement images taken by a mobile phone can reconstruct the 3D surface and extract texture features with accuracy, meeting the requirements of a time-effective documentation. To validate the effectiveness of this technique, the surface structure of the pavement was analyzed in situ using a 3D structured light projection scanner and rigorous photogrammetry with a high-end reflex camera. The results demonstrated that increasing the point cloud density can enhance the detail level of the real surface 3D representation, but it leads to variations in road surface roughness parameters. Therefore, appropriate density should be chosen when performing three-dimensional reconstruction using mobile phone images. Mobile phone photogrammetry technology performs well in detecting shallow road surface textures but has certain limitations in capturing deeper textures. The texture parameters and the Abbott curve obtained using all three methods are comparable and fall within the same range of acceptability. This finding demonstrates the feasibility of using a mobile phone for pavement texture assessments with appropriate settings.