From Complex Modulus E* to Creep Compliance D(t): Experimental and Modeling Study

Creep compliance (D(t)) is a very important input for the thermal cracking resistance in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). The aim of the work presented here is to predict the results of creep compliance D(t) from the result of complex modulus E*(ω). The work plan is divided in two main parts: an experimental part consisting of creep tests, and a modeling part. Three configurations were compared together, namely direct tensile, direct compression and indirect tensile tests. The modelling part consists of using a 2S2P1D model coupled to Kopelman approximation to switch from the frequency domain to the time domain. Additionally, 2S2P1D was used to calibrate the generalized Kelvin–Voigt model and get the creep compliance directly from E* results. The experimental results show that D(t) from direct tensile and direct compression are the same in the viscoelastic domain and are greater than D(t) from the indirect tensile test. The indirect tensile test (IDT) seems to be very difficult to achieve compared to the other two variants. The converted results using the 2S2P1D model coupled to Kopelman approximation and the results from the GKV model describe the experimental points very well.