George Ball (scientist)
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Dr. George Ball (August 9, 1944), pioneering road surface scientist, born at Auckland, New Zealand. Dr. Ball received his PhD in physics from Canterbury University in 1977. After a year with the Christchurch Industrial Development Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research he joined the Road Transportation Research Group at Opus International Consultants Central Laboratories in 1979 where he has been working ever since along with his many great papers on his areas of expertise. [1]As a child Dr. Ball taught himself to play cricket out of a book using his high intellect to work out motion theories and relate them to particular skills in cricket. He was a left arm orthodox bowler and was successful as a club cricketer until a serious back injury forced him into retirement. This left him to focus on his studies.
[edit] His Research
Dr. Ball is an expert on road surface technologies, especially lifetimes of bitumen, asphaltic concretes and chip seals. His theories on the effect of mositure on bitumen have been called 'visionary'. Dr. Ball carried out a number of tests on the effect of water on bitumen and chipseals in order to try and reduce flushing and blistering of the seal binder. He tested seal samples from a number of flushed sites and one unflushed site and then compared them. Both dynamic and static water pressure tests indicated that traffic on a wet road surface can force water into the surface where it may vaporize and form the blisters of seal binder than can eventually result in flushing. He found that it is possible that chipseal surfaces are far more permeable to water than has been commonly believed. Dr. Ball's results showed that moisture induced flushing can be brought about by two phenomena, both of which can be present at the same time. In the first scenario, vapor pressure from water in the base can push bitumen up through the seal layers. In the second, often brought about by tire pressure on wet roads, water enters through the surface because of a loss in bond between the stone and the binder. He found water needs a continuous passage way of less than 0.1mm diameter through the seal for water vapor flushing to occur. This was a revelation at time. Before this, scientists had only considered blisters in seal binder as a direct effect of flowing water as opposed to an indirect effect of water vapor. With this knowledge, and Dr. Ball’s research, significant advances have been made in road surface lifetime and durability. [2]
