Microstructural Modeling of Rheological Mechanical Response for Asphalt Mixture Using an Image-Based Finite Element Approach

In this paper, an image-based micromechanical model for an asphalt mixture’s rheological mechanical response is introduced. Detailed information on finite element (FE) modeling based on X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) is presented. An improved morphological multiscale algorithm was developed to segment the adhesive coarse aggregate images. A classification method to recognize the different classifications of the elemental area for a confining pressure purpose is proposed in this study. Then, the numerical viscoelastic constitutive formulation of asphalt mortar in an FE code was implemented using the simulation software ABAQUS user material subroutine (UMAT). To avoid complex experiments in determining the time-dependent Poisson’s ratio directly, numerous attempts were made to indirectly obtain all material properties in the viscoelastic constitutive model. Finally, the image-based FE model incorporated with the viscoelastic asphalt mortar phase and elastic aggregates was used for triaxial compressive test simulations, and a triaxial creep experiment under different working conditions was conducted to identify and validate the proposed finite element approach. The numerical simulation and experimental results indicate that the three-dimensional microstructural numerical model established can effectively analyze the material’s rheological mechanical response under the effect of triaxial load within the linear viscoelastic range.