Investigation on Mechanical Properties of Bituminous Materials through 2D/3D Finite Element Numerical Simulations

Abstract

Abstract. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the influence of a modeling in two and three dimensions (2D, 3D) on the dynamic modulus of bituminous materials based on finite elements method (FEM). The dynamic modulus of the matrix and the elastic properties of aggregates were used as input parameters into the FEM model. The aggregate skeleton of composites was generated randomly. In order to construct numerical master curve of bituminous material this model was subjected to various frequencies loading.The numerical results were compared to the analytical values of the complex modulus obtained by the Generalized Self-Consistent Scheme (GSCS) and a satisfactory agreement was obtained. Moreover, the 2D numerical results are situated below the 3D results, and both are placed below the experimental results. The observed gap highlights the weakness of 2D models to consider interlock between aggregates and to describe behaviors of materials which are highly influenced by heterogeneities in terms of mechanical properties.

A micromechanical model of elastic-damage properties of innovative pothole patching materials featuring high-toughness, low-viscosity nanomolecular resin

“…The limited prior studies which involved three-dimensional numerical simulations mostly involved obtaining the microstructure with two-dimensional CT scanning and three-dimensional converting technique (Dai, 2011;Vadood et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2011). There exists a similar random aggregates generation approach in the three-dimensional simulation (Absi et al, 2016;Tehrani et al, 2013); however, their emphasis was on the influence of different modeling techniques on the dynamic moduli of bituminous materials. Therefore, a novel three-dimensional random aggregates generation model is warranted to simulate the elastic-damage behavior of the innovative nanomolecular DCPD resin enhanced asphalt concrete materials.…”