Investigation of the force evolution in aggregate blend compaction process and the effect of elongated and flat particles using DEM

Review on Load Transfer Mechanisms of Asphalt Mixture Meso-Structure

“…The study of the load transfer mechanism of the meso-structure of asphalt mixture provides a new perspective for the study of classical problems, and can also induce new understanding. In the past decades, a variety of methods have been introduced to study the load transfer mechanisms, such as the photoelastic experiment method, digital speckle method, digital image processing (DIP) technology, discrete element method (DEM) simulation, finite element method (FEM) simulation, and the combination of multiple methods [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…The load transfer mechanism mainly refers to the characteristics of load transfer in an asphalt mixture under external load [ 5 , 13 ]. Aggregates in contact constitute the skeleton of asphalt mixtures and affect load transmission in the mixture, which determines its deformation resistance [ 14 , 15 ].…”

“…The research on contact mechanical behavior of asphalt mixture is mainly focused on analyzing the aggregate contact, such as aggregate contact zone [ 16 ], aggregate contact chain structure [ 2 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], and aggregate contact number characteristics [ 20 , 21 ]. For contact force characteristics, the most common studies are statistical analysis of contact force, including contact force distribution characteristics [ 9 , 22 , 23 ] and contact force evolution characteristics in the compaction process [ 5 , 24 ]. Studies of force chain fall into two categories, force chains identification criteria, including force chains length [ 25 , 26 ] and force chains number [ 27 , 28 ], and force chains structural characteristics [ 6 , 29 ].…”

“…From the existing studies, it is found that the contact skeleton structure of asphalt mixture is the load transfer foundation, and the contact force and force chain characteristics can reflect load transfer mechanism of skeleton structure of asphalt mixtures. Meanwhile, massive research attention has been given to develop the evaluation parameters of load transfer mechanisms according to load transfer characteristics, such as contact number, contact chain structure, load-bearing contributions (based on average contact force), and force chains morphologies (force chains length, force chains angle, and force chains number) [ 5 , 16 , 21 , 28 ].…”

Packing structure of porous asphalt mixture (PAM)

“…Li et al (2019) simulated asphalt mixtures with parameterised aggregate shape and size gradation, and the results showed that DEM model has good agreement with laboratory measurements in simulating uniaxial test. The force evolution and the effect of flat and elongated aggregates on the compaction process of aggregate blends were investigated via PFC3D, and simulation results showed capability to predict the force evolution trends and it was found that flat and elongated particles have remarkable influence on contact force increment (Wang et al 2020).…”