Mechanical Modelling of Asphalt Concrete Using Grid Division

Daniel Castillo, Imad Al-Qadi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

In this paper, a simple method is introduced for the computational modelling of multiphase materials, and for the approximation of their mechanical response. The two-dimensional microstructures of six asphalt concrete specimens are selected; three of the specimens have ‘low’-, and three have ‘high’ aggregate fraction. A grid is used to divide the surface of each microstructure into square cells. The procedure of grid division is applied from 1 up to 100 divisions per side (i.e., up to 10,000 cells in the grid-divided specimen). To obtain an approximation of the mechanical response of the microstructure, the properties of the cells are estimated using three simple interpolation rules between the properties of the two phases, i.e. asphalt matrix and rock aggregates. It is found that the interpolation rules can yield reasonably representative results depending on the aggregate fraction of the microstructures and the number of divisions/cells in the grid. The grid-divided specimens allow approximating the overall mechanical response of the microstructures, and characteristics such as strain concentrations, overall deformations, and resulting force.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1012-1023
Number of pages12
JournalInternational Journal of Pavement Engineering
Volume21
Issue number8
Early online date13 Aug 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jul 2020
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • multiphase material
  • modelling
  • grid division
  • finite elements

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