Visco-elastic analysis of asphalt concrete

Аннотация

One of the load-bearing elements of the pavement is the asphalt binder, a viscoelastic, thermoplastic substance that has the stiffness of an elastic solid body but also flows and loses energy as a viscous fluid due to frictional losses. Asphalt materials have been studied using creep testing at multiple service temperatures. One of the most significant pavement distresses is persistent strain or rutting. It is thought that the primary cause of rutting in asphalt pavements is the accumulation of tension in the asphalt binder driven due to traffic. The commercial software ABAQUS CAE is utilized to simulate the creep behavior of asphalt concrete samples modeled as 2D bar elements. The viscoelastic properties of the material are characterized using the Prony series, enabling the numerical results to closely align with experimental observations. The outcomes of the analysis are presented as strain-time and displacement-time graphs.