Journal of Civil Engineering and Management

ISSN 1392-3730 / eISSN 1822-3605

2021 Volume 27 Issue 5: 278–287
https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.14902

DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CONCRETE

BASED RAISED PAVEMENT MARKER FOR IMPROVED TRAFFIC SAFETY

Muhammad SALEEM 1*, Akira HOSODA2

1Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal
University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Eastern Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
2Institute of Urban Innovation, Yokohama National University, 79-1 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya Ward,

Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan

Received 16 December 2020; accepted 21 April 2021

Abstract. Road infrastructure has witnessed incremental changes in the past as compared to the immense development
witnessed by the vehicle’s safety technology. Bott’s dots and other reflector devices are extensively used on the road infra-
structure for lane separation and for improving edge detection. These devices come in a large variety of shapes and sizes,
however, all of them fall under the category of retroreflectivity since they depend on vehicle lights to provide reflection.
Glow-in-the-dark (GiD) material has the benefit that it can store energy during the presence of light and can emit the
stored energy in the form of visible light in the absence of an external light source. In this regard, the presented research
work details the development and testing of GiD concrete based markers that can be used for lane separation and edge
detection. The benefit of the presented innovation is that GiD concrete based markers can be used for visible light instead
of retroreflectivity in addition to acting as a driver alertness tool. The durability performance of the presented innovative
GiD based raised pavement markers has been presented along with cost comparison to traditional Bott’s dot. In addition,
the presented prototype can be adopted for various architectural and esthetical applications in buildings, parks, walkways
and bicycle lanes etc.
Keywords: glow-in-the-dark concrete, traffic safety, construction materials, infrastructure design, performance testing,
road furniture.

Introduction
Traffic safety is a major concern around the world. Modern roads date back almost a century ago (British Standards
vehicles are a marvel of engineering with sensors, camera Institution, 1927). Several options have been explored
and cruise control included to assist the driver in their in the past to resolve the nighttime visibility issue which
commute (Euro NCAP, 2020). Jarašūnienė and Jakubaus- range from providing glass/acrylic beads, paint marking,
kas (2007) highlighted the use of intelligent vehicle safety LEDs, raised pavement reflectors etc. (Utah Department
systems by dividing them into active and passive safety of Transportation, 2012; State of California Department
features. The researchers concluded that the improvement of Transportation, 2018). No single solution has been uni-
of road infrastructure was necessary to improve safety. Teo versally acceptable; however, each has its advantages and
& Tan (2020) investigated the use of smart helmet with disadvantages.
object detection for allowing the road users to identify Recently, an idea of incorporating solar panels into the
signs and road furniture. However, the road infrastructure road surface was developed in the USA as shown in Figure
has seen little development in recent decades. Providing 1, the proposed solution was also tested on highways in
streetlight for the nighttime traffic safety is a major chal- China (Mai, 2018). The aim of the researchers was to gen-
lenge. Globally around 2.3% of electricity generated is uti- erate electricity from the road surface and use the gener-
lized for street lighting purposes (Kostic & Djokic, 2009). ated energy to power streetlights (Solar Roadways Incor-
The lack of night lighting on roads has been a source of porated, 2020). However, the idea is at early stages of de-
negative impact on road users (STG Aerospace, 2020). velopment and faces challenges such as extreme environ-
The specifications for providing nighttime lighting on the mental conditions and heavy traffic loading (Mai, 2018).

*Corresponding author. E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]

Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unre-
stricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2021, 27(5): 278–287 279

their effect in terms of safety, environmental influence and

sustainability (Cafiso & D’Agostino, 2016). Santamouris
(2013) and Praticò et al. (2018), investigated the advantage
and dis-advantage of photoluminescent road coatings for
open-graded and dense-graded asphalts in order to judge
their illuminance and texture decay resulting in friction
decrease. The researchers concluded that the paint applied
to the surface undergoes drain-down effect thereby flow-
ing into the voids of the asphalt thus limiting the amount
of paint application.
Various types of materials are used for marking road
pavements such as paint, tape and sprays (Bahar et  al.,
2006; Nance & Sparks, 2020a; Praticò et  al., 2016). Re-
searchers have shown that the application of GiD mate-
rial in the form of paint coating can have poor durability
with paint application eroding in 0.7–2.5 years (Sathyana-
rayanan, 2007; Wiese et al., 2015). The technical require-
ments of marking are skid resistance, reflectivity during
Figure 1. Hexagonal Solar Panels with toughened glass installed the daytime and retroreflectivity i.e., reflection during the
on road surface (Solar Roadways Incorporated, 2020) nighttime under the headlamps of the vehicles. Photolu-
minescent paints generally contain (a) butyl ethanoate,
a colorless flammable ester at room temperature, (b) xy-
Saleem and co-authors (Saleem, 2016, 2020; Saleem et al., lene or ethylbenzene which are an aromatic hydrocarbon.
2017; Saleem & Blaisi, 2019), developed a smart road lane Nanophosphor, strontium aluminate is an inert, odorless,
separator that can transmit information to the road users nonflammable crystalline powder. It is heavier than water
and were able to sustain the harsh road loading and en- and when activated using europium (SrAl2O4: Eu) dopant,
vironment (Appendix). The aim of the researchers was to it acts as a slow discharge photoluminescent phosphor. It
provide information to the road users through light trans- is commonly used in exit signs, stairways, pathways along
mitted from under the road surface. However, the idea is with safety markings (Zitoun et al., 2009; Nance & Sparks,
yet to be tested under real-world conditions. 2020b).
Photoluminescent material also known as glow-in-the- Currently, the road furniture such as raised lane reflec-
dark material offer a solution to lack of nighttime visibility tor and separators are designed to provide retroreflectance
problem by providing visible light for lane separation and to the road users by reflecting light coming from the vehi-
edge detection of roadways. Luminescence is a physical cle’s head lights to give feedback to the road users regard-
property of living being and materials which gives them ing lane change and road edge. Glass beads are commonly
the ability to produce visible light in the absence of an ex- employed in various specification based on their retrore-
ternal light. Phosphorescence is a form of photolumines- flective properties and low cost. Retroreflective properties
cence which releases the absorbed radiation slowly in the of glass beads have been a topic of interest in recent times.
form of visible light. Energy is absorbed in terms of solar Smadi et al. (2014) summarized the parametric impact on
radiation, even streetlights and light coming from the ve- the light reflectivity of glass beads. The influential factors
hicles can contribute to energy absorption. In materials that affect the performance of paints that contain glass
this phenomenon is achieved by using light irradiation to beads were categorized as (a) type of binder; (b) surface
excite the electrons. It is the fundamental property of ma- conditions; (c) quality and quantity of glass beads material
terials that when electrons change direction, they release in marking paint; (d) embedment and roll. Researchers
energy (Blamire, 2003; Britannica, 2020). This released en- concluded that there was large variation in performance
ergy can be harnessed for providing nighttime visibility on of the paint materials owing to uncontrollable factors such
road pavements. as type of binder, surface conditions and large tempera-
Commercial companies in the Netherlands have been ture variations. Another drawback of glass bead reflector
working on developing photoluminescent paints that has is their reduced visibility via retroreflection during rain
the ability to glow during the nighttime for up to 10 hrs, and standing water on the road surface (Smadi et al., 2014;
thus providing free road lighting (Rojas-Hernandez et al., Hautière et al., 2009).
2018; Praticò et al., 2016). Depending upon the techno- In this regard, glow-in-the-dark (GiD) materials offer
logical advances and improvements in performance and a unique opportunity to researchers and engineers seek-
durability, this type of lighting source could be used to ing innovation in materials to improve the performance
enhance the road safety along with lowering the urban capabilities of existing design of raised pavement mark-
heat island effects (Giuliani & Autelitano, 2014; Okada, ers. Figure 2 presents the picture of a glow-in-the-dark
2015). To consider photoluminescent material for applica- highway unveiled in the Netherlands. GiD material has
tion on road infrastructure, it is necessary to understand been adopted for edge detection on dark highways by em-
280 M. Saleem, A. Hosoda. Development and testing of glow-in-the-dark concrete based raised pavement marker ...

Figure 2. Glow-in-the-dark highway in Netherlands

(McGrath, 2014; BBC News, 2014b)
Figure 3. Day and nighttime view Glow-in-the-dark
(GiD) material
bedding electrical wires under the layer of GiD paint. The
drawback of this technique is that the GiD material re- 2) To experimentally investigate the optimum percent-
quires an electrical current to be excited which leads to the age of GiD powder required to achieve the desired
glowing effect. On-site testing revealed that the material glow duration and intensity.
has the ability to glow for 12 hours, however, its durability 3) To perform durability testing on the developed pro-
and performance under harsh environmental conditions is totype.
lower than the expected level (McGrath, 2014; BBC News,
2014a, 2014b). Nance and Sparks (2020b) presented a de-
tailed review into the potential application phosphores- 2. Design
cent materials for lighting up the tomorrow’s highways Commercially available Bott’s dots, turtles, buttons, and
and presented detail of the various challenges involved reflectors come in a large variety of shapes and sizes. This
with their application. The researchers highlighted the large variation in shape and size is attributed to speed and
need of further research and development on this topic. volume of traffic on a given highway. Through field inves-
In light of the above presented discussion the aim of tigation it was noticed that the most common cause of
the presented research work was to develop a GiD materi- failure of the commercially available Bott’s dots is break-
al based raised pavement marker (RPM) that can be used age, dismantling and slippery top surface leading to poor
for lane separation and edge detection. The manuscript grip of tires (Texas Transportation Institute, 2009; Ameri-
details the proof-of-concept regrading design and perfor- can Association of State Highway and Transportation Of-
mance testing of GiD based RPM. The proposed solution ficials [AASHTO] 2007; National Aeronautics and Space
circumvents the durability challenges posed by the photo- Administration [NASA], 2020). Their main function as
luminescent paint. The developed prototype has the ability road furniture is to provide retroreflectance and to serve
to glow for 8 hrs after light excitation thus eradicating the as a driver alerting tool when changing lane or nearing the
need for electroluminesce. Performance testing including edge of the road. Hence, the fundamental advancement of
thermo-mechanical testing and skid resistance testing was the presented GiD RPM over the traditional RPMs is its
performed on the developed prototype in order to judge ability to provide safety inform of visible light during the
its suitability under real-world condition. Furthermore, nighttime in-addition to acting as a driver alertness tool.
cost comparison of GiD based pavement markers is pre- While choosing the shape and size of the presented
sented to show the increase in cost as compared to the prototype, detailed discussion was held with field engi-
traditional markers such as Bott’s dots, buttons, turtles etc. neers working in the road maintenance industry along
available in the market. with detailed literature survey. The discussions consist-
ed of survey questions and feedback from stakeholders
1. Objectives which included government entities, private consulting
and design organizations along with academic research-
The research work details the use of nanophosphor Stron- ers. Learning from the feedback of the participants the
tium Aluminate as GiD nano-powder along with resin- criterion for selecting the shape and size of GiD RPM
based epoxy used to develop GiD based pavement marker. was based upon (a) glow-in-the-dark visibility; (b) driver
Figure 3 presents the day and night view of the nano pow- alertness; (c) ease of manufacturing; (d) transport and in-
der. The main objectives of the presented experimental re- stallation along with roughness of the top-surface.
search work are as provided below: In light of the above presented background, a circular
1) To develop a proof-of-concept prototype of GiD shape with 75 mm diameter and 15 mm height having
based RPM with capability of providing visible a defined vertical edge was chosen as the final design of
light as compared to traditional retroreflectance the proposed prototype. The objective of this design is
from RPMs. to provide driver feedback in term of tire vibration and
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2021, 27(5): 278–287 281

safety through glow-in-the-dark. The prototype presented

in the manuscript is selected for application on roads with
vehicle speeds of maximum 50 km/hr. Although several
sizes and shapes are possible for the proposed GiD RPM,
however, the aim of the presented research work is to act
as proof-of-concept for GiD RPM. Hence, only one road
type was selected owing to budgetary constraints. The de-
sign for other higher speed roads is an area for further
research and development.

3. Materials Figure 4. Particle size analysis

GiD based raised pavement marker disk specimens were
molded by preheating the die to 150 °C for 15 mins and
placing a layer of GiD nano powder followed by a 5 mm
layer of methyl ester polystyrene here onwards referred to
as epoxy resin. A steel meshing of 1mm diameter with 4
mm center to center spacing was placed along with second
layer GiD nano powder followed by 10 mm of epoxy resin.
The structure of the wire mesh was incorporated into the
specimen in order to provide structural rigidity and stabil-
ity under harsh high temperature conditions. After casting
the samples were placed in the temperature-controlled cur-
ing room of temperature of 23 + 3 °C for a period of 24 hrs.
Afterwards the samples were demolded and placed in the
Figure 5. Glow-in-the-dark (GiD) based raised pavement
air cooling for an additional period of 24 hrs. Figure 4 pre- marker specimens (U.S. Patent pending)
sents the particle size analysis of the GiD nano powder used
in the experimentation. Past researcher tested three sizes
of GiD powder i.e., coarse powder ranging from 50 μm
to 30 μm, medium size ranging from 6 μm to 3 μm and
fine size of the powder ranging from 3 μm to 1.8 μm
(Omran & Tagnit-Hamoua, 2016; Wiese et  al., 2015).
Through their experimentation it was revealed that larger
sized particles resulted in larger deterioration while fine
size powder was more suitable for mixing the material
with other cementitious compounds as it allowed for ease
of penetration into the pours. Furthermore, Sathyanaray-
anan (2007) tested GiD based paint on the road surface
and concluded that traffic flow would wear out the paint
coating based on fine sized material in a life span of 0.7–
2.5 years depending upon the location of paint and traffic
Figure 6. Traditional Bott’s dots/turtles/buttons in comparison
volume. In light of the above discussion and learning from to Glow-in-the-dark (GiD) raised pavement marker
the experience of the past researchers’ (Sathyanarayanan specimen – day and nighttime view
et al., 2007; Wiese et al., 2015) medium size of GiD pow-
der was selected for the presented experimentation. GiD
powder was mixed three varying proportions of 5%, 10% to absorber and store energy during the daytime and emit
and 15% of mass of epoxy resin in order to identify the the energy in the form of visible light during the night-
appropriate percentage of GiD powder needed to achieve time. Thermo-mechanical performance testing was con-
the required intensity and duration of glow. A total of 36 ducted in order to ascertain the durability of the devel-
disk samples were molded using three proportion of GiD oped prototype. The results of the testing are presented in
nano powder as shown in the Figure 5. the proceeding section.
Figure 6 depicts the GiD based raised pavement mark-
er in comparison to commercially available Bott’s dots 4. Performance testing and results
presented in day and night light conditions. Bott dots
4.1. Compressive strength testing
come in a variety of colors, however the most commonly
used types are white and yellow which are as presented in Compression testing of the developed prototype was con-
Figure 6. It can be seen from the presented experimental ducted using ASTM D695-15 (American Society for Test-
evidence that the developed GiD based prototype is able ing and Materials [ASTM], 2015) standard. Three samples
282 M. Saleem, A. Hosoda. Development and testing of glow-in-the-dark concrete based raised pavement marker ...

from each mix proportion i.e., 5%, 10% and 15% GiD in- 4.2. Thermal testing
clusion, totaling nine samples were tested under mono-
Thermal testing was conducted on the developed proto-
tonically increasing compressive load applied at 5 mm/
type to judge its suitability of application under real-world
min as shown in Figure 7. The objective of this test was to
conditions. The objective of the research team for this test
simulate the pressure of vehicle tire passing over the pro-
was to investigate the possibility of melting or deforma-
totype specimens. Table 1 presents the results of the nine
tion owing to increase in temperature. With regards to
samples tested under compressive loading. The average expected daily functionality of the proposed prototype
compressive strength of the nine samples was 92.42 MPa. two tests were developed. The first test was designed to
Field investigation from past researchers (Texas Trans- simulate the daily temperature fluctuation and the internal
portation Institute, 2009; AASHTO, 2007; NASA, 2020) thermal loading that can cause deformation into the shape
related to the causes of failure of RPMs has shown that of the prototype while the second was devised to emulate
breakage of Bott’s dots is a common cause of failure ow- an extreme condition where a hot bitumen can be cast ad-
ing to the brittle nature of materials used for manufactur- jacent to GiD based RPM installed on the walkway, cycle
ing followed by dislodging of epoxy resin. Commercially way, bus stand etc. For the first test the specimens were
available RPM are also manufactured using steel enclosed placed in the dry air temperature-controlled laboratory at
reflector casing which are tested using ASTM D4280 temperature of 23 + 3 °C for a period of 24 hrs. Afterwards
(ASTM, 2018a) standards. The typical RPM tested under the specimens were placed in the oven and the tempera-
this standard must be able to sustain 82 MPa. Figure 7 ture was increased to 55 °C in equal increments of 5 °C at
also presents the typical cracking pattern of the prototype the rate of increase of 1 °C per minute. The samples were
specimen. From the presented experimentation it was no- kept at 55 °C for 15 mins and then removed and allowed
ticed that the samples experienced slight edge cracking to cool in air. This loading cycle was repeated 12 times
and discoloration owing to applied loading, however, no on a single specimen. From the experimentation it was
clear breakage of the specimen was recorded during the recorded that the samples depicted no cracking damage
experimentation. From the presented experimental evi- or deformation to the shape.
dence, it can be deduced that the developed prototype is The second thermal loading test was designed to rep-
capable of sustaining the compressive forces applied owing licate the extreme condition where a hot bitumen could
to vehicle loading. be placed adjacent to the GiD RPM installed on bicycle
ways, walkways, curb stones of bus stand etc. In this case,
the air-cooled samples were placed in the over and the
temperature was increased to 100 °C in equal increments
of 5 °C per minute. The samples were kept at 100 °C for a
period of 5 mins and then allowed to cool down to room
temperature. From the experiment it was evident that only
15% GiD RPM samples displayed slight visible deforma-
tion owing to thermal expansion properties of the added
nano powder. However, since this is an extreme case test
and the conditions of extreme temperature remain for a
few minutes in real-world setting as the temperature im-
mediately starts to drop once the bitumen is laid on the
Figure 7. Compression testing of GiD based RPM specimen
road surface. Hence, the performance of the specimen can
be considered as satisfactory.
Table 1. Compressive testing result of GiD based RPM
4.3. Skid resistance number test
Area Load Comp. Str.
Sr. No. GiD Proportion Traffic Safety Division (1995) conducted a detailed review
(mm2) (KN) (MPa)
of the skid performance of commercially available RPM’s.
1 4416 404 91.55
The researchers tested 14 different type of samples using
2 5% 4416 391 88.73 British Pendulum Number (BPN) test which depicts the
3 4416 411 93.21 coefficient of friction and reported that the RPMs showed
4 4416 401 90.99 an average skid resistance number (SRN) of 40 which is
5 10% 4416 424 95.97
below the desired value of 65 and could cause the vehicles
to lose control when driving over them under wet and
6 4416 420 95.09 windy conditions.
7 4416 418 94.74 In light of this discussion the aim of the research team
8 15% 4416 394 89.18 was to develop a GiD based RPM which could perform
9 4416 408 92.37
better in SRN test. In this regards the developed proto-
type was evaluated in three environmental conditions:
Average 92.42 (a) sandy; (b) wet; (c) dry, using ASTM E303-93(2018)
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2021, 27(5): 278–287 283

(ASTM, 2018b). The aim of the test was to ascertain the

performance under each weather condition. Table 2 pres-
ents average of five tests conducted under environmental
condition. It is to be brough to the attention of the readers
that during skid testing rubber marks were observed on
the top surface of the prototype. However, these marking
did not affect the luminescence of the prototype, further-
more, these marking were cleaned with water scrubbing.
The standard value of SRN for most tricky locations, ac-
cording to ASTM E303-93(2018) is 65 (ASTM, 2018b).
From the presented result it is evident that the developed Figure 8. Fatigue test, daytime and nighttime view
prototype performs suitable in all weather conditions. of GiD Based RPM Specimen after fatigue testing

Table 2. Skid resistance value for 15% GiD based RPM level of glow i.e., intensity and duration of glow of the de-
Sr. No. Area (mm2) Surface Condition Skid Average
veloped prototype. In this regards a photometer was used
to measure both intensity and duration of the sample in
1 4416.00 Sand 77
candles per square meter (mcd/m2). The base level of the
2 4416.00 Wet 68 prototype was established as the minimum light that the
3 4416.00 Dry 83 human eye can see emitting from the prototype at 0.0032
mcd/m2 (Matsuzawa et al., 1996; Kostic & Djokic, 2009;
4.4. Fatigue testing Rojas-Hernandez et al., 2018; Praticò et al., 2018). Since
the intensity and duration of the light depends on the per-
Fatigue testing of the developed GiD RPM prototype was centage of GiD powder included in the prototype along
conducted using ASTM D4280 standard (ASTM, 2018a). with the excitation duration. Hence, before commencing
The objective of this test was to evaluate the performance the test all samples were placed in the dark cover with
of the developed prototype under repeated compressive no visible light for a period of 24 hrs. Afterwards, each
loading resulting from the passing of vehicle tires. To sim- sample was excited using 150W xenon lamp. Duration and
ulate the field condition of the compressive load gener- intensity of glow of each sample was recorded. The ra-
ated by the vehicle passing over the GiD RPM, the samples tionale behind choosing the Xenon lamp as the source of
were tested under cyclic loading. The loading cycle started excitation was the logic that since its spectral irradiation
with the increase in applied compressive force up to 88 emitted by the xenon lamp matches closely with the sun
MPa. The load was kept constant for 5 sec, after which based on spectral irradiance vs wavelength of light, hence,
the load was removed. This cyclic loading was repeated for this choice will replicate the real-world lighting condition
100 times. 88 MPa equates to 95% of average compressive (Wiese et al., 2015; ASTM, 2020). Furthermore, the dis-
force achieved during the compressive strength testing. tance of the light was adjusted such that the entire surface
The rational for selecting this load value was to satisfy the of the GiD RPM was uniformly covered with the lighting.
ASTM D4280 (ASTM, 2018a) requirement of 82 MPa for Three samples with 5%, 10% and 15% GiD material addi-
steel enclosed reflector RPM. tion were tested for 5, 10 and 15 mins of excitation. The
It is to be brought to the attention of the readers that glow-in-the-dark was measured such that after exciting
during the field condition, the load applied over the RPM the specimen for the desired amount of time, the lamp was
is sustained for less than a second under normal traffic switched off and the photometer was placed on top of the
conditions, however, in the presented research work the samples after 30 seconds. Data recording was initiated and
load was sustained for 5 sec in each loading cycle. The continued for a period of 8 hrs. The rational for recording
rational background for this decision was to simulate the data for 8 hrs was the logic that the GiD samples need to
worst possible condition of slow-moving traffic. Hence, produce visible light only in the nighttime.
the choice of time has sustained loading has logical back- It is worth highlighting that the standard accepted for
ground. Figure 8 presents the sample after fatigue testing escape route marking industry is 100 times higher than
along with the nighttime view. It can be seen from the fig- the base value of 0.0032 mcd/m2 i.e., 0.32 mcd/m2 (Mat-
ure that the sample experienced no failure. The abrasions
suzawa et  al., 1996). Figure 9 presents the experimental
on the surface of the sample were owing to the rough-
evidence of the glow-in-the-dark testing. From the pre-
ness of the steel plates used for testing. Furthermore, the
sented experimental evidence, it is clear that as the GiD
samples were visible during the nighttime even after the
nano powder proportion increases the intensity of glow
cyclic testing.
increases. However, percentage of GiD nano powder had
little effect on the duration of glow. From the presented
4.5. Glow-in-the-dark testing experimental evidence, it can be concluded that once the
Glow-in-the-dark testing was conducted on the developed GiD material is completely charged/excited then the mate-
prototype to judge its applicability under real-world con- rial will keep emitting visible light for the needed amount
dition. The objective of the experiment was to judge the of duration. However, the intensity of duration is a factor
284 M. Saleem, A. Hosoda. Development and testing of glow-in-the-dark concrete based raised pavement marker ...

Figure 9. Glow intensity and duration with respect to varying

percentage of GiD nano powder in developed GiD
based RPM prototype

of GiD proportion. Furthermore, streetlights and vehicle

light also contribute towards charging the GiD RPM. Figure 10. Exerts from the demo video of GiD based RPM:
From the result it can be seen that as the GiD component a – Vehicle cyclic tire loading test; b – Day time view;
increases from 5% to 10% the gain in intensity was 13% c – Nighttime view
while 23% gain in intensity was observed for GiD compo-
nent increase of 10% to 15%. Furthermore, past published oration were observed after the repeated vehicle loading.
experimental research work (Saleem & Blaisi, 2019) has Furthermore, the daytime and night view of the GiD RPM
shown that GiD component larger than 20% has negligible are also presented to the readers to allow to judge the in-
performance gains as compared to cost increase. Hence, creased visibility owing to the developed GiD RPM.
it can be deduced that 15% of GiD nano proportion can It is worth highlighting that the demo unit installed
be considered as desirable from the perspective of glow on the roadway were not charged for the full day owing
intensity, duration and cost. The cost comparison of the to limitation of the test site. Furthermore, it was also ob-
developed GiD based RPM as compared to traditional served that the prototype was able to absorb energy from
bott’s dots along with real-world testing demonstration the streetlights thus increasing the glow and adding to
video evidence is presented in the proceeding section. overall safety and ambiance of the roadway.

5. Real-world application test 6. Real-world maintenance strategies

The objective of this section is to present to the readers The objective of this section is to bring to the attention
the real-world testing of the developed prototype. It is to of the readers the various challenges associated with the
be highlighted that the developed prototype is for roads application and maintenance of the proposed prototype.
with speed limits of 50 km/hrs and is primarily designed For application it is recommended to use epoxy resin as
for community roads. Although it is possible to develop a binder for attaching the GiD RPM to the road surface.
large variations in shape and sizes of the proposed proto- Since, the application of the developed prototype ranges
type. The main aim of the presented research work is to from use inside the building, parking areas, airports, roads,
provide proof-of-concept of the using GiD based RPM for bicycle lanes, walkways. Hence, the amount of epoxy resin
improve visibility and edge detection. Hence the choice of needed for installation is an area of further research and
road condition and geometry of the prototype has rational development. From the field experience, it is well docu-
background. In light of the above-mentioned case condi- mented that the traditional Bott dots suffer rupture failure
tions, it was a full-sized SUV was chosen as the vehicle owing to the brittle materials used for their construction,
for applying tire compressive loading. 100 passes of the furthermore, their top surface is slippery in nature which
vehicle were performed on the presented prototype. is a cause of concern for traffic safety (Texas Transporta-
Figure 10 presents the exerts from the demo video tion Institute, 2009; AASHTO, 2007; NASA, 2020).
where a full-sized SUV loading was passed over the GiD The presented developed GiD RPM has the advantage
RPM prototype for 100 times. The test site was a commu- that the top surface is not slippery, however, this provides
nity road inside the university housing compound with an additional challenge that the top surface of the proto-
a speed limit of 50 km/hrs. The objective of this test was type is prone to discoloration owing to type marks. How-
to ascertain the performance of the developed prototype ever, laboratory testing has revealed that the discoloration
under real-world vehicle loading and environmental con- can be removed by washing and scrubbing the GiD RPM.
ditions. From the experiment, no degradation and discol- Considering this testing, it is recommended to apply lu-
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 2021, 27(5): 278–287 285

bricant based brushing of the prototype under real-world – A glow-in-the-dark concrete based raised pavement
traffic application. It is worth highlighting that this is an marker is presented which has the ability to provide
achievable with minimal modification to existing road visible light thus eradicating the need of retroreflec-
cleaning equipment. Hence, this aspect of the presented tion and electroluminescence.
GiD RPM is a challenge that can be addressed with little – GiD based RPM specimens depicted good durability
efforts in the real-world application conditions. performance under mechanical and thermal loading.
– Glow-in-the-dark testing has revealed that the glow
7. Cost comparison with traditional RPM intensity increases with the increase in percentage
of nano powder. Furthermore, the glow duration is
According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention not affected after the material has been charged for
[CDC] (2020) each year 1.35 million people lose their 5 mins.
lives to traffic accidents each year around the globe. 3700 – The demo video detailing the application of the
people die each day resulting in a total loss of US$ 1.8 tril- GiD based RPM depicted increased visibility of lane
lion to the global economy. In this regards any innovation markers and road edge which added to the safety of
and breakthrough in traffic safety will have a major impact the road users.
on the living standard of people around the world.
In light of the above discussion real-world cost com- Acknowledgements
parison of the presented prototype is conducted to evalu-
ate the increase in cost owing to the use of GiD material. It The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Re-
is worth mentioning that the researchers were aware that search (DSR) at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal Univer-
using the GiD nano powder will lead to cost increase, sity, IAU (Previously: University of Dammam), Kingdom
however, the safety and quality of life improvement gained of Saudi Arabia for the continued support, cooperation
from the use of GiD based RPM should also be taken into and guidance.
context when comparing the numerical figures presented
below. The cost comparison is conducted for 15% addition Data availability
of GiD based RPM in comparison to traditional commer-
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings
cially available Bott’s dots assuming that the cost of la-
of this study are available from the corresponding author
bor, handling, placement, transport and installation is the
upon reasonable request.
same for a given site. Since the installation mechanism is
the same for both devices, hence the above-mentioned as-
sumption has rational background. The details of the cost Conflict of interest
comparison are as provided in Table 3. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
All the funding sources have been disclosed and are ac-
Table 3. Cost comparison
knowledged in the manuscript.
Traditional Bott’s dots
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APPENDIX
Demo Video Link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
yIg8zz6T2ys and QR Code: