Due to a changing climate, heat stress will largely increase and thus, the regulations, as well as the calculation methods, have to be updated in a way that road surfaces can withstand climate conditions during their expected lifetime. The update also entails a sophisticated upgrade of the calculation methods due to progress in numerical modelling techniques which will enable the BASt to update the regulations regularly.

We use very high-resolution climate data, provide synthetical future weather time series downscaled to seconds-time steps and then calculate the thermal-mechanical impact of climate change on different materials to make recommendations.

Ongoing project. Together with our partner ISAC GmbH, we deliver an updated version of the regulations determining the dimension requirements of asphalt and concrete road surfaces. The updates are regarding the specifications of climate conditions which are the bases of heat and frost stress under which the road surface has to last for at least 30 years.