Abstract
This paper presents a novel approach to modeling of asphalt pavement structures. Analysed medium exhibits a complex behaviour due to its specific structure. It is a multi-layered domain consisting of both bound asphalt layers and unbound layers of the compacted aggregate (e.g. the base course or the anti-frost layer). The first layer type can be modeled as a continuum, whereas the latter one as a composition of small, separable bodies being in contact. Moreover, the asphalt mixture reveals strong heterogeneity. Its main constituents (the aggregate and the bituminous binder) exhibit completely different response to the applied load. Thus, a specific approach is proposed to consider this complexity. Presented approach enables one to avoid costly laboratory or ‘in situ’ tests performed to evaluate the response of the adopted pavement structure. In order to account for the heterogeneity of the asphalt mixture, local numerical homogenization is used. Brief description of this computational homogenization method is presented. The aggregate is assumed to be elastic and the binder is modeled as a Burgers visco-elastic material. The latter model is also briefly described. Numerical modeling of the asphalt layers is performed using hp-adaptive FEM. Its integration with local numerical homogenization is presented in details. Numerical modeling of the unbound layers is done using discrete element method (DEM). Results of preliminary numerical tests that confirm the efficiency of the proposed approach are presented.