Study on Dynamic Response Characteristics of Saturated Asphalt Pavement under Multi-Field Coupling

Abstract

To study the dynamic response of saturated asphalt pavement under moving load and temperature load, 3-D finite element models for asphalt pavements with hydro-mechanical coupling and thermal-hydro-mechanical coupling were built based on the porous media theory and Biot theory. First, the asphalt pavement structure was considered as an ideal saturated fluid–solid biphasic porous medium. Following this, the spatial distribution and the change law of the pore-water pressure with time, the transverse stress, and the vertical displacement response of the asphalt pavement under different speeds, loading times, and temperatures were investigated. The simulation results show that both the curves of the effective stress and the pore-water pressure versus the external loads have similar patterns. The damage of the asphalt membrane is mainly caused by the cyclic effect of positive and negative pore-water pressure. Moreover, the peak value of pore-water pressure is affected by the loading rate and the loading time, and both have positive exponential effects on the pore-water pressure. In addition, the transverse stress of the upper layer pavement is deeply affected by the temperature load, which is more likely to cause as transverse crack in the pavement, resulting in the formation of temperature cracks on the road surface. The vertical stress at the middle point in the upper layer of the saturated asphalt pavement, under the action of the temperature load and the driving load, shows a single peak.

Keywords

• multi-field coupling
• hydro-mechanical coupling
• thermal-hydro-mechanical coupling
• pore-water pressure
• transverse stress
• vertical stress