Journal of Road Engineering 3 (2023) 288–299

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Journal of Road Engineering

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Original Article

Influence of iron powder content on the electromagnetic and mechanical

performance of soft magnetic geopolymer composite
Tao Ma, Gonghui Gu *, Feng Chen, Ning Wang
School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China

H I G H L I G H T S

SMGC can improve induction heating efficiency of airport pavement.

Compatibility between electromagnetic and mechanical behaviors of SMGC was analyzed.

180 wt.% iron powder content can lead to a weak ITZ within the SMGC.

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In the induction heating of airport pavement to remove snow and ice, soft magnetic geopolymer composite
Soft magnetic geopolymer (SMGC) can be used to gather the dissipated electromagnetic energy, thus enhancing the energy utilization ef-
Mechanical performance ficiency. The aim of this work is to analyze the influence mechanism of iron powder content on the electro-
Electromagnetic performance
magnetic and mechanical performance of SMGC, so as to provide theoretical guidance for the design of soft
Induction heating
Energy conversion efficiency
magnetic layer within airport pavement structure. The results show that the increase of iron powder content
reduces the resistance and magnetoresistance of SMGC by decreasing the content of non-magnetic phases between
iron powder. However, the reduction of iron powder spacing also provides a shorter transmission path for the
inter-particle eddy currents in the SMGC specimen, which enhances the exchange coupling between iron powder,
thus increasing the electromagnetic loss. Therefore, the compatibility between magnetic permeability and elec-
tromagnetic loss should be considered comprehensively in the mix design of SMGC. In addition, although iron
powder can enhance the mechanical properties of SMGC by improving the density of geopolymer matrix, the
excessive amount of iron powder can lead to a weak interfacial transition zone between geopolymer matrix and
iron powder. According to the induction heating results, optimized SMGC can improve the energy transfer effi-
ciency of induction heating by 24.03%.

1. Introduction
Intelligent maintenance technologies for transportation in-
frastructures are gaining significant attention in the field of road engi-
neering in recent years (Fu et al., 2022a; Han et al., 2021; Wang et al.,
2022). The accumulation of snow and ice on airport pavement in winter
not only affects the efficiency of air transport, but also poses a challenge
for the normal maintenance of airport pavement due to the unsuitable
snow and ice melting methods. The currently used mechanical de-icing
method can cause damage to the airport pavement surface, thus
reducing its service life. Meanwhile, the chemical agents used in the
chemical de-icing approach will corrode the concrete materials within
the airport pavement (Chu et al., 2023), as well as cause pollution to the
water and soil environments (Gao et al., 2022; Ma et al., 2021). There-
fore, electromagnetic induction heating method can be considered to
melt the snow and ice on the airport pavement in real time without
causing damage to the airport pavement structure (Fu et al., 2022b).
Electromagnetic induction heating technology can convert electromag-
netic energy into heat energy by means of a coil containing alternating
current and a heat generation layer laid on the surface of the airport
pavement, thus heating the airport pavement and realizing real-time ice
melting (Liu et al., 2022). However, due to the small difference in
magnetoresistance of the layers within the airport pavement structure,
the magnetic induction lines will spread over a large area within the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: matao@seu.edu.cn (T. Ma), gugonghui@seu.edu.cn (G. Gu), fengc@seu.edu.cn (F. Chen), wangning11@seu.edu.cn (N. Wang).
Peer review under responsibility of Chang'an University.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jreng.2023.05.002
Received 15 December 2022; Received in revised form 4 May 2023; Accepted 5 May 2023
Available online 4 September 2023
2097-0498/© 2023 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
T. Ma et al.
airport pavement. In addition, due to the high magnetoresistance of or-
dinary concrete, a large amount of electromagnetic energy will be
consumed below the coil, thus affecting the induction heating efficiency
of the airport pavement (Gu et al., 2022a; Liu et al., 2021).
A soft magnetic composite material can be placed under the coil as a
soft magnetic layer to make up for the shortages of existing electro-
magnetic induction heating technology (Chen et al.., 2023). Soft mag-
netic composites are widely used in electronics and metallurgy
applications, and are prepared by pressing magnetic powders with
non-magnetic media under high pressure (Li et al., 2022a; Yan et al.,
2022). Soft magnetic composites have remarkable low magnetoresis-
tance, low coercivity and high resistivity properties (Marinca et al.,
2022). Theoretically, since the soft magnetic layer has a lower magne-
toresistance than that of the ordinary concrete layer, the dissipated
electromagnetic energy below the coil can be gathered in the soft mag-
netic layer. Meanwhile, the low coercivity and high resistance of the soft
magnetic layer can reduce the loss of the gathered electromagnetic en-
ergy in the soft magnetic layer (Weir et al., 2022). Then more electro-
magnetic energy can be induced to the heat generation layer according to
the principle of closed magnetic circuit, thus improving the energy uti-
lization of the whole induction heating system. Therefore, this study
proposes to adopt a soft magnetic geopolymer composite prepared by
mixing iron powder and geopolymer paste as the soft magnetic layer of
airport pavement to gather the dissipated electromagnetic energy, thus
improving the efficiency of airport pavement induction heating.
As a functional layer used for gathering electromagnetic energy inside
airport pavement, soft magnetic geopolymer needs to present excellent
mechanical and electromagnetic properties. Geopolymer is a kind of
inorganic materials that have been extensively studied in recent years
due to its potential to replace the traditional cement-based materials in
construction and other applications. As an alternative to cement, geo-
polymer is prepared by alkali activating industrial solid wastes such as
metakaolin, fly ash, red mud, slag, etc. (Gu et al., 2023a; Trincal et al.,
2022). Due to the large amount of three-dimensional mesh structures
inside geopolymer, geopolymer presents an excellent mechanical per-
formance, which can meet the material requirements of airport pavement
(Gu et al., 2022b; Ling et al., 2023). The addition of fine aggregates has
been reported to fill the pores inside the geopolymer, thus enhancing its
mechanical properties by increasing its compactness (Kuri et al., 2023).
However, the unique Si-O-Al structure formed by geopolymerization can
adsorb heavy metal elements such as Fe, Au, and Pb, which may change
the interface contact between iron powder and geopolymer matrix, thus
affecting the mechanical properties of the soft magnetic geopolymer
(Yang et al., 2022). Consequently, the evolution mechanism of me-
chanical performance for soft magnetic geopolymer composite needs to
be further investigated.
The electromagnetic properties of soft magnetic composites are
mainly related to the magnetic powder content and internal micro-
structures (Li et al., 2022b; Zhu et al., 2022a). This is mainly because the
magnetic field inside the soft magnetic composites is mainly transmitted
through the magnetic powders, while microstructures such as pores can
weaken the transmission of magnetic field by forming pinning points and
demagnetization, thus reducing the magnetic permeability (Błyskun
et al., 2021; Yi et al., 2021). Since traditional soft magnetic composites
are prepared by pressing magnetic powders with organic polymers or
alloys under high temperature and pressure (Choi et al., 2023; Zhang
et al., 2021), there are fewer microstructures such as pores inside them,
which results in a clear evolution mechanism of their electromagnetic
performance. However, unlike traditional soft magnetic composites,
Table 1
Primary components of FA and GBFS (wt.%).
Material SiO2 Al2O3 CaO K2O
FA 51.158 29.981 4.719 2.534
GBFS 26.436 13.143 48.519 0.301
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Journal of Road Engineering 3 (2023) 288–299
geopolymer is a kind of inorganic cementitious material, and the complex
geopolymerization inside it leads to the unclear development trend of
pores inside it (Kovarík et al., 2021; Zhu et al., 2022b). Meanwhile, the
increase of iron powder content may influence the pore distribution in-
side the geopolymer matrix (Vu et al., 2020), thus affecting its electro-
magnetic performance. In addition, since the geopolymer gels inside the
soft magnetic geopolymer composite can form a double layer capacitance
(Gu et al., 2023b; Han et al., 2022), which may also have an effect on the
transmission of electromagnetic field. Therefore, the evolution mecha-
nism of the electromagnetic performance of soft magnetic geopolymer
composite needs further investigation.
Consequently, soft magnetic geopolymer composite is prepared by fly
ash, granulated blast furnace slag, and iron powder under an alkali
condition in this study. Then, the influence mechanism of magnetic
powder content on the electromagnetic and mechanical performance of
soft magnetic geopolymer composite was analyzed. Based on this, an
electromagnetic induction heating system was constructed in the labo-
ratory and the energy saving potential of the soft magnetic geopolymer
composite in the electromagnetic induction heating process of airport
pavement was verified.
2. Methodology
2.1. Raw materials
Fly ash (FA) and granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) were provided
by Wuhan SinoCem Smartec Co., Ltd. With the main components
revealed in Table 1 and Fig. 1. It can be found from Table 1 that the main
components of FA and GBFS are SiO2, Al2O3 and CaO, which are the main
sources of the active silica-aluminous precursors in the geopolymer
composite. In addition, the Si-O-T peak representing the amorphous
phase can be clearly observed in Fig. 1. The presence of the O-C-O peak
indicates that carbonization has occurred within the GBFS. The average
diameters of fly ash and GBFS are 0.045 mm and 0.035 mm, respectively.
The water glass is a type of colorless and transparent liquid with a
modulus of 3.3, in which the contents of SiO2 and Na2O are 27.3 wt.%
and 8.54 wt.%, respectively. NaOH is a white granular substance with a
purity higher than 97%. The average particle size and purity of the
annealed spherical iron powder is 150 μm and 99.7%, respectively.
2.2. Mix design and specimen preparation
Soft magnetic geopolymer composite was prepared by mixing and
stirring iron powder with geopolymer paste, where the geopolymer paste
was obtained by activating FA and GBFS with a compound alkali acti-
vator. During the preparation process, the mixture was stirred for 2 min
at a rotational speed of 125 r/min, followed by another 2 min at a
rotational speed of 285 r/min. The mix ratio of geopolymer paste was
determined based on the related report (Xu et al., 2022). It was reported
that in the FA-GBFS system, when the mass of FA accounts for 40 wt.% of
the composite powder, the prepared geopolymer can combine promising
mechanical performance with good workability at the same time. In
addition, the compound alkali activator was produced by adjusting the
modulus of water glass to 1.2 via NaOH. It should be noted that since the
dissolution of NaOH in water glass can generate a lot of heat and lead to
the evaporation of some free water, it is necessary to replenish water after
the compound alkali activator is cooled to room temperature (20  C) (Δm
¼ m1m2, Δm is the mass of supplemental water, m1 is the total mass of
NaOH and water glass, m2 is the total mass of composite alkali activator
TiO2 SO3 Na2O MgO P2O5 MnO
1.719 1.533 0.720 0.564 0.395 0.054
2.156 2.539 0.485 5.353 0.026 0.469
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Table 2
Mix design of soft magnetic geopolymer composites with different iron powder
contents.
Mix FA GBFS Compound Water Iron Iron powder
(g) (g) alkali activator (g) powder content
(g) (g) (wt.%)

XH1 1032 688 657.6 222.4 0 0

XH2 1032 688 657.6 222.4 600 30
XH3 1032 688 657.6 222.4 1200 60
XH4 1032 688 657.6 222.4 1800 90
XH5 1032 688 657.6 222.4 2400 120
XH6 1032 688 657.6 222.4 3000 150
XH7 1032 688 657.6 222.4 3600 180
XH8 1032 688 657.6 222.4 4200 210

the soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimens were recorded

continuously within 50 min. The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor
with an area of 16 cm2 and a distance of 4 cm was tested to be 18 pF when
filled with air, and this value was used in Eq. (1) to calculate the relative
dielectric constant of the soft magnetic geopolymer composite.

Fig. 1. Primary chemical functional groups within FA and GBFS used in Cs

ε¼ (1)
this study. Ca

after cooling to the room temperature). After mixing and stirring, the
fresh soft magnetic geopolymer composite was poured into molds and
maintained at 20  C and 95% humidity for 14 d. The specific preparation
process and mix design of the soft magnetic geopolymer composite in this
study are shown in Fig. 2 and Table 2, respectively.
2.3. Performance testing and characterization methods
2.3.1. Electromagnetic performance test
According to Chinese standard GB/T 31838-2021 (Standardization
and Ministration, 2021a), Tonghui 2830 LCR meter was used to test the
real-time electrical resistance and capacitance values of the soft magnetic
geopolymer composite specimens (4 cm  4 cm  4 cm) at a frequency of
1 kHz. During the tests, two pieces of conductive copper paper with a size
of 4 cm  4 cm  4 cm was attached to the two opposite sides of the
specimen and the clamps were used to hold the copper paper on both
sides of the specimen. Then the electrical resistance and capacitance of
where ε is the relative dielectric constant of soft magnetic geopolymer
composite specimen, Cs is the capacitance of soft magnetic geopolymer
composite specimen (pF), Ca is the capacitance of an air-filled parallel
plate capacitor, Ca ¼ 18 pF.
The magnetic hysteresis loop of soft magnetic geopolymer composite
was measured via a LakeShore-7404 vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM)
in accordance with GB/T 3848–2017 (Standardization and Ministration,
2017). During the test, the applied magnetic field was changed from 2 T to
2 T. Meanwhile, to avoid the experimental errors, 3 VSM testing blocks were
respectively taken at the top, middle and bottom of the 40 mm  40 mm 
40 mm soft magnetic geopolymer specimen for testing.
2.3.2. Mechanical performance test
The compressive strength of soft magnetic geopolymer composite was
measured based on Chinese standard GB/T 17671–2021 (Standardization
and Ministration, 2021b). After placing the specimen into test fixture,
force-control loading mode at a rate of 1 kN/s was applied on the specimen

Fig. 2. Preparation process of soft magnetic geopolymer composite in this study.

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Fig. 3. Electromagnetic equipment for the indoor induction heating test.
and the compressive strength value was recorded after the specimen had
been destroyed.
2.3.3. Microstructure characterization
(a) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM): SEM test was used to observe the
micro-structures of soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimens.
(b) X-ray diffraction (XRD): Rigaku SmartLab SE was adopted for XRD
measurement under the Cu Kα radiation. The scanning range was
from 10 to 80 with a speed of 1 /min.
(c) Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP): Autopore V9620 was
adopted to conduct the pore structure analysis. During the test, the
pressure was gradually increased from 0.52 psi to 30,000 psi, and
the relationship curve between the cumulative intrusion volume
and the pressure was recorded.
Fig. 4. Magnetic hysteresis loops of soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimens under different iron powder contents.
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2.3.4. Electromagnetic induction heating test
The indoor induction heating test was carried out using a Duge in-
duction heater at an output power of 7.5 kW. The heat generation layer
was a carbon fiber geopolymer specimen with a diameter of 10 cm and a
height of 3 cm, and the soft magnetic layer was a soft magnetic geo-
polymer specimen with a diameter of 10 cm and a height of 4 cm. In
addition, to avoid experimental errors, the same carbon fiber geopolymer
specimen was used for all induction heating tests, and the temperature of
carbon fiber geopolymer specimen needed to be adjusted to 20  C before
each test via a programmable temperature chamber. The electromagnetic
equipment for the indoor induction heating test is shown in Fig. 3.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Electromagnetic properties of soft magnetic geopolymer composite
specimens
Fig. 4 presents the magnetic hysteresis loops of soft magnetic geo-
polymer composite specimens with different iron powder contents. As
can be seen from Fig. 4, the hysteresis loops show a distinct S-shape,
which indicates that the tested soft magnetic geopolymer composite
specimens have significant soft magnetic behavior (Schubert et al.,
2019). In addition, the iron powder can significantly enhance the satu-
ration magnetization intensity of the soft magnetic geopolymer com-
posite. According to Fig. 4, the saturation magnetization intensity of the
soft magnetic geopolymer composite at 210 wt.% Fe content (116.59
emu/g) is 220 times higher than that of the pure geopolymer (0.53
emu/g).
The increase trend of the saturation magnetization intensity of soft
magnetic geopolymer composite can be mainly attributed to the reduc-
tion of the internal magnetoresistance within the soft magnetic geo-
polymer composite. Specifically, there are a large number of randomly
distributed magnetic and non-magnetic phases inside the soft magnetic
geopolymer composite. Then, under the action of applied magnetic field,
these phases will form a short magnetic circuit, which is a part of the
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Fig. 5. Real-time electrical resistance values of soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimens. (a) XH1. (b) XH2. (c) XH3. (d) XH4. (e) XH5. (f) XH6. (g) XH7.
(h) XH8.

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Fig. 6. Real-time capacitance values of soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimens. (a) XH1. (b) XH2. (c) XH3. (d) XH4. (e) XH5. (f) XH6. (g) XH7. (h) XH8. (i)
Relative dielectric constant.

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closed magnetic circuit (Zhao et al., 2022). Since the volume of a soft
magnetic geopolymer specimen is fixed, the proportion of non-magnetic
phase gradually decreases when the iron powder content increases,
which leads to a decreasing trend of the magnetoresistance for the
specimen. Further, within the magnetic circuit, its magnetomotive force
can be expressed by Eq. (2) (Bu et al., 2022; Chen et al., 2021), where δm
is the magnetomotive force of the magnetic circuit, L is the length of the
magnetic circuit, H is the applied magnetic field strength, ΦB is the
magnetic flux within the magnetic circuit, and Rm is the magnetoresis-
tance of the magnetic circuit. Since the applied magnetic field excitation
and the size of the soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimen, i.e.,
the length of magnetic circuit, are both fixed, the δm within the magnetic
circuit is constant. Therefore, according to Eq. (2), the decrease in
magnetoresistance caused by the increase of iron powder content can
result in an improvement in the magnetic flux within the magnetic cir-
cuit, thus leading to an increase in the saturation magnetization intensity
of soft magnetic geopolymer composite.
I
δm ¼ HdL ¼ ΦB Rm (2)
L Fig. 7. 14 d compressive strength of soft magnetic geopolymer composite
specimens with different iron powder contents.
Fig. 5 illustrates the electrical resistance values of the soft magnetic
geopolymer composite specimens containing different iron powder
contents over 50 min. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that as the iron powder
content increases, the electrical resistance of soft magnetic geopolymer
composite shows a clear reduction trend. The decreasing trend can be
attributed to the shortening of iron powder spacing within the soft
magnetic geopolymer composite, which intensifies the electron transi-
tions caused by thermal vibrations, thus enhancing the current connec-
tion between two adjacent iron powder particles (Zheng et al., 2022;
Zhou et al., 2020). Fig. 6 presents the capacitance values and the calcu-
lated relative dielectric constant of the soft magnetic geopolymer com-
posite specimens with different Iron powder contents. The development
trend of the relative dielectric constant is opposite to that of the electrical
resistance, which is mainly due to the fact that the reduction of the iron
powder spacing provides a shorter transmission path for the inter-particle
eddy currents in the specimen, thus enhancing the exchange coupling
and polarization effects of the iron powder under alternating magnetic
field (Cao and Chung, 2004). It should be noted that the reduced elec-
trical resistance exacerbates the eddy current loss within soft magnetic
geopolymer composite under the alternating magnetic field, and the
enhanced polarization effect can intensify the energy loss caused by the
charged particles overcoming thermal motion under electric field force
(Shen et al., 2021). These two losses can further limit the energy transfer Fig. 8. XRD patterns of soft magnetic geopolymer composites.
efficiency in the induction heating process, so the coordination between
magnetic performance and electric losses needs to be considered
comprehensively in practical engineering. and intensity of the amorphous dispersion peak at 28 –32 is diminished.
In contrast, the peak intensity of the characteristic peak of Fe gradually
intensifies with the increase of iron powder dosage. This can be mainly
3.2. Mechanical properties and microstructure of soft magnetic geopolymer attributed to that the increase of iron powder content leads to a drop in
composite specimens the concentration of geopolymer matrix in the test specimen, thus
resulting in the weakening of the peak intensity and width of its char-
As shown in Fig. 7, the 14 d compressive strength of soft magnetic acteristic amorphous dispersion peak in the XRD pattern. The above
geopolymer composite increases gradually with the increase of iron analysis indicates that the addition of iron powders is difficult to enhance
powder content when the iron powder content is less than 150 wt.%. the mechanical properties of the soft magnetic geopolymer composite by
However, when the iron powder content exceeds 150 wt.%, the 14 promoting the geopolymerization process inside it. Therefore, the
d compressive strength presents a significant decreasing trend. compressive strength enhancement of the soft magnetic geopolymer
For the inorganic cementitious materials containing fine aggregates, composite in Fig. 7 can be mainly attributed to the improvement of the
the strength evolution mechanism is mainly related to the internal interfacial behavior between the iron powders and the geopolymer
chemical reaction process and the interfacial connection between fine matrix.
aggregates and inorganic cementitious material matrix (Han et al., 2020; Fig. 9(a) and (b) shows the cross-sectional morphology of XH1 and
Zheng et al.., 2023). XH3 specimens after the compressive failure, respectively. Fig. 9(c) and
Fig. 8 shows the XRD spectra of the soft magnetic geopolymer com- (d) presents the energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) spectra of the
posites with different iron powder contents. It can be seen clearly form whole domain in Fig. 9(a) and the EDS area in Fig. 9(b), respectively. It
Fig. 8 that the increase of iron powder content has not changed the type can be seen from Fig. 9(a) and (c) that there is no obvious Fe element in
of crystal within the soft magnetic geopolymer composite. It is also the XH1 specimen, and the spherical particles within the SEM image are
evident from Fig. 8 that as the iron powder content increases, the width unreacted fly ash particles. In addition, the obvious crack connection

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T. Ma et al.
Fig. 9. Micromorphology. (a) Geopolymer matrix. (b) Soft magnetic geopolymer composite EDS spectra. (c) The whole domain in Fig. 9(a). (d) EDS area in Fig. 9(b).
effect can be found in Fig. 9(a), which results in a low compressive
strength of the soft magnetic geopolymer specimen. When the iron
powder is added to the geopolymer matrix, since the Young's modulus of
iron powder is higher than that of the geopolymer matrix, the cracks tend
to change direction when passing through the Fe particles. Then the
formation of penetrating cracks can be avoided, and the crack develop-
ment path can be extended, which further increases the energy consumed
in the crack development (Haily et al., 2023; Wan et al., 2022), thus
improving the mechanical performance of the soft magnetic geopolymer
composite. In addition, the skeleton effect formed by the iron powder
particles and the geopolymer matrix also contributes to the compressive
strength development of the soft magnetic geopolymer composite.
Furthermore, it has been reported that the geopolymer matrix typically
contains 10%–20% pores (Gadkar and Subramaniam, 2022; Zhang et al.,
2018). Therefore, due to the high density of Fe, the addition of iron
powders can improve the compactness and reduce the porosity of the soft
magnetic geopolymer composite per unit volume, which has been veri-
fied in Fig. 10. It clearly illustrates that the porosity of the soft magnetic
geopolymer composite gradually decreases as the amount of iron powder
content increases, which further enhances the mechanical performance
of soft magnetic geopolymer composite.
However, when the iron powder content exceeds 150 wt.%, the
cementation between iron powder particles tends to become weak due to
the low content of the geopolymer matrix within the soft magnetic
geopolymer composite specimen. Fig. 11 shows the interface
morphology between the iron powder particles and the geopolymer
matrix in the soft magnetic geopolymer composite. It can be found that
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the geopolymer matrix between two adjacent iron powder particles is
relatively dense and the connection between the iron powder and the
geopolymer matrix is tight when the iron powder content is 150 wt.%.
However, when the iron powder content is increased to 180 wt.%, the
loose geopolymer matrix between the two adjacent iron powder particles
and the penetrating shear cracks after failure can be clearly found in
Fig. 11(b), which further results in the decreasing trend of the
compressive strength presented in Fig. 7.
3.3. Electromagnetic induction heating efficiency
To further analyze the energy-saving potential of the soft magnetic
geopolymer composite in the electromagnetic induction heating process
of airport pavement, the soft magnetic geopolymer composite with an
iron powder content of 150 wt.% was selected for the electromagnetic
induction heating tests according to the coordinating consideration of the
electromagnetic and mechanical properties of the soft magnetic geo-
polymer composite. Fig. 12 presents the upper surface temperature of the
carbon fiber geopolymer specimen after heating for 90 min. It can be
found from Fig. 12 that, the upper surface temperature of the carbon fiber
geopolymer specimen has been improved by 24.03% under the contri-
bution of a soft magnetic layer.
The improvement of temperature is mainly attributed to the low
magnetoresistance of the soft magnetic layer, which causes the electro-
magnetic energy that would otherwise be dissipated below the coils to be
gathered inside the soft magnetic layer, thus boosting the energy flowing
into the heat generation layer. The total electromagnetic energy within
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Fig. 10. MIP results of soft magnetic geopolymer composite specimens.

Fig. 11. Interfacial morphology between iron powder and geopolymer matrix. (a) 150 wt.% iron powder content. (b) 180 wt.% iron powder content.

the magnetic circuit formed by the soft magnetic layer can be expressed electromagnetic induction heating process, the electromagnetic energy
by Eq. (3) (Imbaquingo et al., 2022). Further, combining the total current gathered by the soft magnetic layer is much higher than the electrical loss
law and Faraday's law in the Maxwell equations (Khelifi and Boujemaa, within the soft magnetic layer. Therefore, according to Eq. (6), most of
2022), the change rate of electromagnetic energy within the soft mag- the electromagnetic energy gathered in the soft magnetic layer flows out
netic layer can be expressed by Eq. (4). Since the total electromagnetic of the soft magnetic layer and be induced into the heat generation layer,
energy in the magnetic circuit m is provided by the applied electric field thus increasing the magnetic flux in the heat generation layer. Then, the
Ee , the electric field intensity within the soft magnetic layer can be enhancement of magnetic flux in the heat generation layer further leads
characterized by Eq. (5). Consequently, the energy allocation relation- to the increase of its heat production based on Faraday's law.
ship within the soft magnetic layer can be obtained, as shown in Eq. (6), Z
H 1
where s EHds is the electromagnetic energy flowing out of the soft W¼ ðDE þ BHÞdv (3)
R v 2
magnetic layer; v Ee Jdv is the electromagnetic energy flowing into the
R
soft magnetic layer caused by the external current excitation; v ðJ 2 =γÞdv Z Z
∂W
is the electromagnetic loss within the soft magnetic layer; ∂W/∂t is the ¼ rðEHÞdv þ EJdv (4)
∂t v v
increment of electromagnetic energy in the soft magnetic layer. As can be
seen from Fig. 4, the coercivity of the soft magnetic geopolymer com-
J
posite is close to zero, which greatly reduces the ability of the soft E ¼  Ee (5)
γ
magnetic layer to store and consume magnetic energy under the alter-
nating magnetic field. The storage and loss of electrical energy in the soft I Z Z
J2 ∂W
magnetic layer is mainly related to its capacitance and electrical EHds ¼ Ee Jdv  dv  (6)
resistance. The induction heating results prove that during the s v v γ ∂t

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Fig. 12. Surface temperature of carbon fiber geopolymer specimen after 90 min heating. (a) Without soft magnetic layer. (b) With soft magnetic layer.
where s is the closed surface formed by soft magnetic layer, E is the
electric field intensity in s, H is the magnetic field strength in s, γ is the
electrical conductivity of soft magnetic layer, J is the conduction current,
W is the electromagnetic energy density in the soft magnetic layer, Ee is
the applied electric field excitation, D is the electric displacement vector,
B is the magnetic induction vector.
4. Conclusions
Soft magnetic geopolymer composite can be adopted to prepare the
soft magnetic layer of airport pavement. During the electromagnetic
induction heating of the airport pavement to melt snow and ice, soft
magnetic layer can enhance the energy utilization by shaping magnetic
field distribution inside airport pavement structure. In this work, we
analyzed the evolution mechanism of electromagnetic and mechanical
properties of soft magnetic geopolymer composite with different iron
powder contents, and conducted the induction heating experiments in
the laboratory to verify the role of soft magnetic layer in the induction
heating process. Based on the experimental results, the following con-
clusions can be obtained.
(1) Under the action of an external magnetic field, the magnetic and
non-magnetic phases inside the soft magnetic geopolymer com-
posite can form a short magnetic circuit. When the iron powder
content increases, the proportion of non-magnetic phases grad-
ually decreases, which leads to a decreasing trend in the
magnetoresistance of the specimen, thus enhancing the magnetic
flux inside the soft magnetic geopolymer composite.
(2) The increase of iron powder content leads to the shortening of iron
powder spacing within the soft magnetic geopolymer composite,
which enhances the exchange coupling and polarization of iron
powder under the alternating magnetic field, thus resulting in the
resistance decrease and capacitance enhancement of the soft
magnetic geopolymer composite.
(3) The resistance decrease and capacitance increase can aggravate
the electromagnetic loss of soft magnetic geopolymer composite
under an alternating magnetic field. Therefore, the coordination
between magnetic properties and electrical losses of soft magnetic
geopolymer composite needs to be considered in practical
engineering.
(4) The addition of iron powder can lengthen the path of crack devel-
opment within specimen, thus improving the mechanical properties
of the soft magnetic geopolymer composite by increasing the energy
297
Journal of Road Engineering 3 (2023) 288–299
consumed in the crack development. However, when the iron
powder content exceeds 150 wt.%, the mechanical performance of
soft magnetic geopolymer composite presents a decrease trend due
to the weak cementation between iron powder.
(5) When the iron powder content reaches 150 wt.%, the energy
transfer efficiency of electromagnetic induction heating for
airport pavement can be increased by 24.03% under the contri-
bution of soft magnetic geopolymer composite.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors do not have any conflict of interest with other entities or
researchers.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Key Research and Development
Project (2020YFB1600102, 2020YFA0714302), National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51878164, 51922030, 52208430), Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (2242022R10059),
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (SBK2021042206),
Southeast University “Zhongying Young Scholars” Project, and Shuang-
chuang Program of Jiangsu Province (JSSCBS20210058).
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Dr. Tao Ma is a professor of road engineering at School of
Transportation, Southeast University. He is the deputy director of
the National Engineering Laboratory of New Road Materials. He
has hosted/participated in more than 50 important scientific
research projects, such as National Key R&D Program, National
863 Program, National Science and Technology Support Pro-
gram, National Major Scientific Instrument R&D, National Nat-
ural Science Foundation of China, etc. He has published more
than 100 SCI/EI academic papers, and authorized more than 40
national invention patents. He has also published 5 monographs
and participated in 6 industry and local standards. He has won
more than 20 scientific research awards, including the first prize
of technical invention of the Ministry of Education, first prize of
Science and Technology of China Highway Association, etc.
Mr. Gonghui Gu is a Ph.D. candidate in transportation engi-
neering at Southeast University under the supervision of Prof.
Tao Ma, mainly engaged in the research of electromagnetic
pavement materials. He has published more than 10 papers in
international academic journals.
T. Ma et al.
Dr. Feng Chen is an associate professor at School of Trans-
portation, Southeast University. Dr. Chen is specialized in the
field of smart pavement technologies catering to EV dynamic
charging and autonomous driving. He has hosted/participated
in a number of important research projects, including the Youth
Project of NSFC, Youth Project of Jiangsu Provincial Natural
Science Foundation, as well as funding projects by such as EU
Horizon2020 and Swedish Ministry of Transport. He has pub-
lished 30þ high-level journal articles, won as well Outstanding
Paper 2020 Award by the journal of Materials and Structures,
Best Paper Award by 2021 european asphalt technology asso-
ciation (EATA) Conference.
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Journal of Road Engineering 3 (2023) 288–299
Mr. Ning Wang received B.Sc. degree from Shandong Jianzhu
University of Technology, Jinan, China, in 2016 and the M.S.
degree in civil engineering from Shandong University, Jinan,
China, in 2020. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. de-
gree at School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing,
China. His main research interest is the health monitoring and
evaluation of pavement structures based on intelligent sensing
technology.