Major advances have been achieved in the field of self-healing by magnetic induction in which the addition of metallic particles into asphalt mixtures enables repairing their own cracks. This technology has already been proven to increase the life expectancy of roads. Nevertheless, its higher costs in comparison with conventional maintenance caused by the price of virgin metallic particles still makes it unattractive for investment. This research aimed at making this process economically accessible as well as environmentally efficient. To this end, an intense search for suitable industrial by-products to substitute both the virgin metal particles and the natural aggregates forming asphalt mixtures was conducted. The set of by-products used included sand blasting wastes, stainless shot wastes, and polished wastes as metallic particles and other inert by-products as aggregates. The results demonstrated that the by-products were adequately heated, which leads to satisfactory healing ratios in comparison with the reference mixture.

Fatigue is one of the main forms of deterioration in asphalt mixtures, endangering their service life due to the progressive appearance and expansion of cracks. A sustainable approach to increase the lifetime of asphalt pavement has been found in self-healing technology, especially if boosted with metal by-products due to their economic and environmental interest. Under these circumstances, this research addressed the fatigue behavior of self-healing asphalt mixtures including industrial sand blasting by-products obtained from sieving and aspiration processes. Hence, a uniaxial fatigue test was carried out to determine whether these experimental mixtures can provide a similar response to that of a reference asphalt concrete (AC-16). This analysis was undertaken with the support of descriptive and inferential statistics, whose application proved the absence of significant differences in the fatigue performance of self-healing experimental mixtures with respect to conventional asphalt concrete. These results suggest that designing self-healing mixtures with metal by-products is a sustainable approach to increase the lifetime of asphalt pavements, while contributing to the circular economy through diverse economic and environmental benefits.