Finite element method for solving asphalt mixture problem

Abstract

Purpose

Asphalt mixture is widely used in road engineering, and its performance research is particularly important. But the study of asphalt mixture performance needs a lot of tests, such as bending test, splitting test and so on. It also needs a lot of time and material resources. The purpose of this paper is to obtain test results through finite element numerical simulation, and show that this saves a lot of manpower and material resources.

Design/methodology/approach

The mechanical parameters of the material are obtained through uniaxial compression tests. The true stress and plastic strain are calculated according to nominal stress and nominal strain. A constitutive model is established. Then a finite element model of asphalt mixture is established. The numerical simulation and performance study of asphalt mixture bending test is carried out. At the same time, according to the above method, the asphalt mixture is subjected to freeze-thaw cycles and ultraviolet aging, and the mechanical parameters are obtained by a uniaxial compression test. A numerical model is established to simulate the bending characteristics of asphalt mixture after freeze-thaw cycles and ultraviolet aging.

Findings

A uniaxial compression test of the asphalt mixture is conducted to obtain nominal stress and nominal strain. The true stress and plastic strain are calculated and the elastic modulus is established with Poisson’s ratio as the elastic part, and the true stress and plastic strain as the plastic part. The model is constructed, the finite element model is established and the bending test is numerically simulated. The verified trend is consistent, and the method is feasible. According to the above method, the concrete is subjected to freeze-thaw cycle and ultraviolet aging, and the finite element model is established by using uniaxial compression test to obtain parameters. The bending test is simulated and the verification method is feasible. With the increase of the number of freeze-thaw cycles and the increase of UV aging time, the maximum bending strain of SBS modified asphalt mixture and matrix asphalt mixture is decreased .The low-temperature performance of SBS modified asphalt mixture is better than that of matrix asphalt mixture.

Originality/value

A method of simulating asphalt mixture test by finite element method numerical simulation is established. By using this method, the performance of asphalt mixture is studied, which saves a lot of manpower and material resources. At the same time, this method can be used to study the characteristics of asphalt mixture under complex conditions.

Citation

Lijun, W. and Qingbo, L. (2019), "Finite element method for solving asphalt mixture problem", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 569-579. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSI-09-2018-0052