Amy Epps Martin, P.E., F.ASCE, a professor and researcher at Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Martin has more than 22 years of experience teaching civil engineering materials courses and conducting research on safe, sustainable asphalt technologies. Her research achievements and products are based on balancing fundamental theory and practical science within the following four threads:
- Performance-Based Specification for Chip Seal Asphalt Binders in Service
- Development of a surface performance-graded (SPG) specification for binders in service as applied in chip seals that are common preventative maintenance treatments for asphalt pavements to extend their life.
- Field validation of the performance-related properties in the SPG specification.
- Sustainable and Durable Asphalt Materials
- Examination of asphalt binder durability with aging.
- Characterization of asphalt mixture durability with respect to fatigue resistance with aging and moisture.
- Recommendations for short-term laboratory aging of asphalt mixtures.
- Development and field validation of aging protocols and performance thresholds and testing conditions for mix design and quality assurance applications in evaluating moisture susceptibility of warm mix asphalt (WMA), a relatively new, highly desirable technology with economic and environmental benefits.
- Production of a draft American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Standard Practice to engineer sustainable and economical asphalt binder blends and mixtures with high reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) contents that includes (a) component materials selection guidelines for virgin binders, recycling agents, and recycled materials and their proportions; (b) a recycling agent dose selection method; (c) binder blend rheological evaluation tools; (d) mixture performance evaluation tools; and (e) a recycled binder availability factor for mix design.
- Safe Asphalt Materials
- Development of a mix design system for specialty asphalt mixtures (porous friction courses (PFC)) that provide significant safety benefits and noise reduction.
- Production of national guidelines for design, construction and maintenance of PFC.
- Asphalt Materials Characterization
- Exploration of the use of Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) for asphalt materials characterization.
- Evaluation of asphalt binders for quality assurance purposes.
- Characterization of asphalt mixtures in the laboratory in terms of both volumetrics and performance properties.
Martin considers the above research and her positive impact on approximately 1,800 students, including mentoring of 42 graduate students, to be the most significant achievements in her career.
She received her education at the University of California at Berkeley.
