Coupled Numerical Analysis of the Anti-Crack Mechanism for Open-Graded Large Stone Asphalt Mixes

Abstract

The reflective cracking in asphalt surface is a technical problem that exists in the semi-rigid base asphalt pavement structure and the rigid base asphalt pavement structure, how to control its emergence and development is still a major problem for road engineering. At present, researches on the anti-cracking performance for Open-graded Large Stone asphalt Mix (OLSM) in China almost remain in the test road observations, very few study the mechanism of its anti-cracking from the mechanical point. Aiming at this problem, a method of using OLSM as the cracking relief layer is proposed, large mineral aggregate, low asphalt content and a great deal of void in OLSM can dissipate or absorb stress and strain around the crack. The 3-D finite element method is used to analyze the crack-alleviating layer of ordinary asphalt concrete and OLSM, and the large-scale commercial finite element software of ABAQUS is used to do numerical simulation analysis for the lean concrete base asphalt pavement structure with OLSM, the analysis result indicates that temperature-load coupling stress of OLSM are less than that of ordinary asphalt concrete. Depending on the test road on an expressway, research on the anti-crack mechanism of OLSM has been conducted. The investigation of the test road and the result of the theoretical calculation indicate that OLSM can prevent lean concrete base asphalt pavement from the reflective cracking effectively, OLSM has good anti-cracking performance, it is an effective material to alleviate the reflective cracking. As the crack-alleviating layer, OLSM can significantly enhance the anti-cracking ability of the semi-rigid base asphalt pavement structure and the rigid base asphalt pavement structure.