2-D FEM thermomechanical coupling in the analysis of a flexible eRoad subjected to thermal and traffic loading

Abstract

The adaptation of traditional roads (tRoads) into electrified roads (eRoads) generally requires the inclusion of a charging unit (CU) in the pavement. In this study, the structural behaviour of a conductive eRoad is assessed using 2-D FEM simulations, and compared to the behaviour of a tRoad. Thermal and mechanical loadings representative of field configurations were applied and the relaxation response of the bituminous mixtures was calculated. Resulted strain and stress fields indicated a differential thermomechanical behaviour of the eRoad components. Strain and stress concentrations due to daily temperature fluctuations were pronounced near the interface with the CU. Traditional parameters obtained at the bottom of the bituminous layer were found similar for tRoad and eRoad. It is concluded that the development of new failure criteria is necessary to predict the service life of eRoads, in order to consider the thermally-induced strain and the impact of the volumetric rearrangement of the CU.

KEYWORDS:

• Electrified roads
• bituminous mixtures
• viscoelasticity
• thermomechanical coupling
• finite elements method

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the programme USP-COFECUB between Brazil and France for funding the cooperation project ACCESS4FUTURR (Uc Ph 179/19).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).