Development of an analysis tool for deterministic and probabilistic viscoelastic continuum damage approach

Abstract

Pavement industry concerns have been increasing in the past decades towards fatigue cracking due to its negative impact on asphalt pavement performance. Therefore, several studies were conducted to model and characterize asphalt mixture fatigue life and number of cycles to failure (Nf) to achieve the designer’s goal ensuring the asphalt pavement serviceability, durability and to reduce the cost. Viscoelastic Continuum Damage (VECD) approach with incorporating probabilistic analysis (P-VECD) was proposed by several researchers to characterize the fatigue cracking of asphalt mixtures reliably. Although the probabilistic VECD studies attract great attention for characterizing the fatigue crack of asphalt mixtures, the VECD-Nf model random variables (RVs) are defined by using many arbitrary assumptions. Furthermore, the proposed approaches are very complicated, which added computation complexity to the VECD mode. Therefore, the prediction of asphalt mixtures’ fatigue life is needed in a reliable and simple process. This study focuses on developing a user-friendly analysis tool that determines the Nf following the VECD approach with incorporating probabilistic analysis. To achieve this goal, the proper distribution function for each RV in the VECD-Nf model is defined, a simple analysis tool is developed using MATLAB App Designer, and previous studies data for Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) and Fine Warm-Mix Asphalt (F-WMA) mixtures are re-analyzed using the developed P-VECD analysis tool. By using the P-VECD analysis tool, deterministic VECD analysis, probabilistic VECD analysis, and the prediction of the fatigue life of asphalt mixtures will be possible for technicians and engineers in the asphalt community.