Self-Healing Asphalt: A Systematic Bibliometric Analysis for Identification of Hot Research Topics during the 2003–2018 Period

The use of self-healing asphalt is a good option to extend the lifetime of roads and to improve the sustainability of pavement management systems. A bibliometric analysis based on the Scopus database was carried out to review the global research related to self-healing asphalt from 2003 to 2018 and to identify relevant quantitative characteristics from the research in this period. The results from this analysis revealed that the number of accumulated publications followed an exponential growth, which confirmed the relevance that this research topic has gained during the last years. The study revealed that China was the most productive country, followed by the Netherlands, where the most prolific institution is located: Delft University of Technology. Some important research features of the two main approaches most frequently used to develop asphalt mixtures with enhanced self-healing abilities (external heating and encapsulated rejuvenating agents) are compiled in this work.