Abstract
The performance of asphalt pavement is determined by the combination of its material properties, road structure, and loading configurations. A DEM numerical simulation study was conducted to determine stress distribution and deformation behavior of asphalt pavement with graded aggregate base under standard traffic loading. Stress contour and displacement contour were presented via a self‐made program. Compressive stress concentrated area located in both sides of wheel, while tensile stress concentrated area appeared in lower part of the asphalt layer. The traffic loading transferred downward by graded aggregate base and to both sides at the same time, and has a trend to expand gradually with increasing depth within graded aggregate base. Therefore, stress was well distributed in the subgrade soil layer with a great action scope, and the value decreased obviously because of the stress dispersion of graded aggregate base. Vertical displacement was the main displacement of the asphalt layer, and on the both sides of traffic loading, displacement was downward and inclined slightly to the central of loading. Vertical and horizontal deformations included in both graded aggregate base layers, and displacement extended to both sides gradually with increasing depth corresponding to stress‐distribution trends. Vertical displacement was dominated in the subgrade soil layer which was relatively small.
Highlights
In the built and rebuilt highways, approximately 90% of pavements in China are asphalt-surfaced pavements, and much of their subgrade was semirigid base
The present study mainly focuses on the in uence of graded aggregate base on pavement performance; the selected gradation of granular materials is used as GanDing highway base materials with the maximum particle size of 37.5 mm
(1) Stress distribution characteristics demonstrated that compressive stress concentrated area located in on both sides of wheel, while tensile stress concentrated area located in lower part of the asphalt layer; fatigue cracking and rutting will arise with
Summary
In the built and rebuilt highways, approximately 90% of pavements in China are asphalt-surfaced pavements, and much of their subgrade was semirigid base. As the subgrade is used extensively, there are some problems that appear progressively, and subjected to repeated traffic loading, premature failures, and lower maintenance over the life cycle of the pavements [1,2,3,4]. Fatigue cracking and rutting were triggered by leading infiltration of rainwater into subgrade base, which has been found responsible for premature failures [8, 9]. A series of investigation on mechanical properties of graded aggregate base material (referring to assembly of granular materials for construction of highway base layers) was performed alone [10,11,12,13,14,15] to meet the engineering needs, both under motonic and cyclic loading conditions. Long-term stability of pavements can only be achieved with a properly designed and constructed system that consists of all pavement structural components and sufficient understanding of their interaction [6, 20]. erefore, it is imperative to investigate pavement stability by considering its structure. is paper presents a discrete element method (DEM) [21,22,23] numerical
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