Dave Jones Scholarship 2020

Dear AMAP Scholarship Committee Members,
This is Mohammad Ali Notani, Ph.D. student of asphalt material engineering at Purdue University. I came across the AMAP application through my major Professor Dr. John Haddock. I have several experiences in the modified asphalt industry and innovative mix design for the next generation of asphalt technology.
I have started my research and study on modified asphalt binder and mixture when I had enrolled at the Amirkabir Uni. of Tech. I have broadened my skills and knowledge in this context by working on my thesis entitled “Performance Evaluation of Toner Modified Asphalt Binder and Mixture.” I used waste toner as an asphalt modifier due to its carbon-based entity. Besides, using waste toner not only enhances the binder properties but also it alleviates environmental problems concerning with landfilling. My accomplishment is this project results in five journal papers.
Second, I am proud to be working on a new cutting-edge technology called heated asphalt pavement system as my second master’s study at Iowa State University. Indeed, each year America’s harsh winters cost the nation’s economy billions of dollars in snow and ice removals, weather damage to roadways and revenue lost to closed businesses. I was working on electrically conductive asphalt concrete (ECAC) to provide free ice/snow pavement for the airport. In fact, the asphalt mixture is electrical isolative as, therefore, we had to use modifiers to make it electrically conductive i.e., graphite and carbon fiber. This project was sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fabricate electrically conductive asphalt concrete (ECAC) by using a new and innovative mix design. We made the first ECAC with a very low electrical resistivity. This technology, which is applicable to any infrastructure, can remove ice and snow easily and provide safe and speedy transportation of goods and people. Besides, I was working on a construction technique to implement this new technology on a large scale. After almost one and a half years of my study and research at ISU, I almost finished this project, and my accomplishment results in two published journal papers and one patent (under review).
In May 2019, I finished my master's study at Iowa State University and then enrolled at Purdue University as a Ph.D. student working with Prof. John Haddock. Here I am working on a couple of projects such as Superpave 5, Crumb Rubber modified asphalt binders, and also determining the micromechanical properties of asphalt mixture using X-Ray CT scan. My accomplishment during less than one year here at Purdue results in one published journal paper, one conference paper submitted to RILEM, and one TRB presentation. And also, I completed a short project which was related to providing chip seal practical guidance for Indiana chip seal contractor (submitted in Oct 2019 to INDOT).
My great passion for asphalt paving technology makes me think about providing a new and autonomous smart approach to seal cracks on asphalt roadways. These experiences and thoughts showed me the challenges that arose in the field and gave in-depth knowledge of the state of practice in asphalt pavement construction.
My deepest love for asphalt technology itself and transportation infrastructures made me dedicate my professional life to the better of asphalt technology. That is why I have chosen to become a professional engineer in this field to help this industry shine more and more every day. I am also proud to get my highest degree (Ph.D.) at Purdue, which is one of the best universities in asphalt pavement engineering. This is also another reason that I love to stay in the heartland of the US (Midwest) to pursue and develop my professional career.
In conclusion, it is my highest honor and privilege to apply for the AMAP scholarship, and I am really appreciated that you took your time to read and consider my application for your scholarship.
Sincerely,
Mohammad Ali Notani

When I was at ISU as MSc student, I am proud to obtain the following experiences:
1- Heated Asphalt Pavement for providing free Ice-Snow surface for Airport, sponsored by FAA
Through this project, we dosed asphalt mixture with carbon fiber to create a 3D network of conductive paths inside the mixture for passing electrical charges. By applying a low voltage on the ECAC via an embodied electrode, the electrical power can be converted to thermal energy through Joule heating. Such phenomena help asphalt pavement to be heated up more than 50 C just in one hour for melting ice/snow at the harsh weather condition.
2- Otta seal surfacing for low volume roads, Sponsored by Iowa DOT
In this project that I was involved in, my work on the Otta seal can be summarized in the Otta seal design by focusing more on a local aggregate and modified emulsion that we had in Iowa. The main design parameters were emulsion spray rate, aggregate spread rate and level of compaction, and also the type of binder. We implemented this new treatment in several counties, i.e., Cherokee, Buchanan, Ringgold, and Louisa Counties.
During my study here at Purdue I am honored to obtain the following experiences:
3- The effect of milling on the remained sub-layer, and shear strength between the new paved layer with the sublayer have been evaluating by our research team. In this project that is sponsored by InDOT, I had worked during summer 2019 in the field to take samples and monitor the speed of milling and then taking the mechanical test (dynamic modulus) on samples obtaining before and after the milling process.
4- The effect of WMA non-foaming additive on different content of crumb rubber on asphalt binder was evaluated. Since the CRM asphalt requires higher mixing and compacting temperature, there is some fume that has some dangerous ingredients. Our finding shows that adding WMA additives reduces the fume emission of CRM asphalt mixture significantly.

Award: AAPT (2019)
I was honored to be selected by the AAPT board member for receiving the 2019 AAPT award.

Outstanding contribution:
Technical reviewer for the following journals: TRB&TRR (AFK20P, AFK40, AFK50), Construction and building materials, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering (ASCE), etc.

Patent:
Electrically Conductive Asphalt Concrete Containing Carbon Fibers (under review)
Inventors: H.Ceylan, A. Arabzadeh, S. Kim, A. Sassani, K. Gopalakrishna, M.A. Notani
App. No: 62/878,903
ISURF # 04834

Publication
Notani, Mohammad Ali, et al. "Evaluating fatigue resistance of toner-modified asphalt binders using the linear amplitude sweep test." Road Materials and Pavement Design 20.8 (2019): 1927-1940.

Notani, Mohammad Ali, and Mahshid Mokhtarnejad. "Investigating the rheological and self-healing capability of toner-modified asphalt binder." Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Construction Materials (2018): 1-9.

Notani, Mohammad Ali, et al. "Low-Temperature Performance of Toner-Modified Asphalt Binder." Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part B: Pavements 145.3 (2019): 04019022.

Notani, Mohammad Ali, et al. "Effect of Carbon-Fiber Properties on Volumetrics and Ohmic Heating of Electrically Conductive Asphalt Concrete." Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering 31.9 (2019): 04019200.

Arabzadeh, A., Notani, M. A., Zadeh, A. K., Nahvi, A., Sassani, A., & Ceylan, H. (2019). Electrically conductive asphalt concrete: An alternative for automating the winter maintenance operations of transportation infrastructure. Composites Part B: Engineering, 106985.

Notani, Mohammad Ali, et al. "Rutting resistance of toner-modified asphalt binder and mixture." International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology (2020): 1-9.

Pouranian, M. Reza, et al. "Rheological and environmental characteristics of crumb rubber asphalt binders containing non-foaming warm mix asphalt additives." Construction and Building Materials 238 (2020): 117707.

I am an energetic person, and I like to spend my free time outside in nature and doing camping. I think nature is the best thing for relaxing. In summer, I like to have two or three camping at least.
I love walking in the fresh air and running that helps me to relax. Sometimes, I spend my time watching TED Talks, and also, I am playing Piano.
The best thing after a hard day for me is cooking at home to keep my brain away from works that I had. Listening to classical music and biking are other things that I like to do.
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To the end, I am taking this opportunity to thank the AMAP scholarship committee members for taking the time to review my application. If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you and interviewing for this scholarship

I am involving a couple of school activities that some of them are as follows:
1- CRH asphalt mix design competition
The most exciting thing right now that I have at Purdue, we are attending in an asphalt mixture design competition sponsored by CRH Americas Materials.
In this competition, we are working on providing a performance-based RAP mix design using a balanced mix design concept for Indiana roads. In this competition, we use local materials and consider the rutting, thermal crack, and fatigue cracking resistance as primary criteria for balanced mix design. The second step that we need to work in the next few months is to use a rejuvenator to enhance our RAP mix design.
I am very interested in such competition that not only can we enhance our knowledge in this area, but also it helps our team working ability as our group consists of three graduate and two undergraduate students.

2- Three-minute poster presentation
In this activity, I have participated two times to present my works in the three-minute presentation to those who are not familiar with my field of study. Such a presentation and receiving feedback greatly helped my presentation skills. I like it as it is fascinating, and I can understand what others do.