By Dr James Grenfell on 06/21/2023.
James Grenfell is a Principal Professional at ARRB (Australian Road Research Board) with more than 20 years experience in the field of transportation engineering. He has been working within the Sustainability team since the beginning of 2020. This has allowed him to bring his pavement engineering expertise to Sustainability and Resilience, whilst also increasing the research carried out in the recycled materials space. He is undertaking joint NACoE/WARRIP work to investigate the use of recycled and reclaimed plastic in safe, sustainable future road infrastructure and has been working on a variety of projects to advise government on the best practice use of recycled materials in transport infrastructure. He has recently completed work as project lead on Austroads APT6311 Use of Crushed Glass in Road Infrastructure. Previously, he was working within pavement structures as part of Future Transport Infrastructure, having joined ARRB in February 2017. His work focused on Austroads projects TT2046 Improving the cost effectiveness of foamed bitumen-stabilised pavements and TT1897 Increasing the use of low-cost modified granular materials in new and rehabilitated pavements. He has also looked at the addition of nanosilica to asphalt to improve properties and the addition of recycled crushed glass to asphalt to help reduce waste stockpiles.
Prior to this Dr Grenfell spent 13 years as a researcher at NTEC (Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre) at the University of Nottingham in the UK. During this time, he worked on and managed various projects related to pavement materials. These projects involved permanent deformation and fatigue properties of asphaltic materials, moisture damage in asphalt pavements, adhesion of bitumen to aggregate, warm mix asphalt technologies, the use of crumb rubber and recycled asphalt and alternative binders. His main research interests are the fundamentals of adhesion, moisture damage of asphaltic materials, recycling, and the use of secondary materials.
Dr Grenfell has published more than 100 journal papers and peer reviewed conference papers. He is a Director-at-large of the International Society of Asphalt Pavements, on the Editorial board for the Proceedings of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists and a member of the TRB Asphalt Pavement Design and Rehabilitation (AKP30) committee. He is involved in several RILEM Technical Committees looking at bituminous and asphaltic materials. He is member of the Standards Australia Committee CE-012 Aggregates and Rock for Engineering Purposes. Dr Grenfell won the Category 2: Industry Excellence in Consulting, Research or Education award for the National Design Procedures for Lightly Bound Cemented Materials in Flexible Pavements at the 9th AustStab Awards of Excellence in 2021.
Prior to working at NTEC James undertook a PhD in Metallurgy and Materials. The title of his PhD was The Effect of Macroalloying on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of γ-based Titanium Aluminides. This piece of work focused on the relationships between microstructure and mechanical properties, the application being the replacement of heavier steel parts in aero-engines.
If you are interested, Please click on the link to access the webinar:
https://mediaspace.carleton.ca/media/ARTEL+Applied+Transportation+Research+Talk/1_hiy0du8j