Facing the aggravating challenges of climate change and global warming, the pavement industry today is putting more emphasis on low-carbon paving materials and technologies. Dr Leng’s research involves all aspects of the pavement science and engineering, including material design, paving technology, nondestructive evaluation, maintenance and rehabilitatin, and life cycle analysis. The main research areas include:
· Sustainable and low-carbon pavement materials, such as rubberized asphalt, waste plastic modified bitumen, epoxy/polyurethane modified asphalt, and reclaimed asphalt pavment;
· Nondestructive evaluation of infrastructure: ground-penetrating radar (GPR), close proximity (CPX) tyre-road noise measurement system, etc.;
· Application of life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), big data methods, and BIM/GIS in pavement management;
· Environmental impact of pavement: leaching behaviors, emissions, odor,etc.;
· Multiscale modeling of pavement materials.