Research on response of temperature change to pavement structure layer based on micromechanics

ABSTRACT

The effect of temperature on the meso-mechanical properties of each structural layer of the pavement was studied in this paper. Fitting standard indoor uniaxial compression tests, meso-scale parameters of the material were obtained. With the mesoscopic parameters of each structural layer, a two-dimensional discrete element model of the pavement was constructed. This discrete element model of the road surface was coupled with the 2 DOF 1/4 vehicle model, and the unevenness of the road surface provided incentives for vehicles. At different temperatures, the meso-mechanical response of each structural layer of the road surface was solved under the action of vehicle loads. The movement of particles at different temperatures was analysed. The results show: compared with the finite element model, the vertical displacement produced by the discrete element model is 4.8% larger than the finite element model. That shows that the discrete element model data has certain credibility. The vertical displacement decreases as the depth of the structural layer increases and increases as the road surface temperature increases. And the vertical stress decreases as the depth of the structural layer increases, and increases as the road surface temperature increases. The horizontal stress of the upper layer is compressed, the horizontal stress of the lower layer is stretched, and the horizontal stress of the remaining structural layers does not change significantly. The horizontal stress decreases as the road surface temperature increases. The tangential stress of each structural layer is in anti-symmetric state, both tensile state and compressed state. Tangential stress decreases with increasing road surface temperature. The higher the temperature, the smaller the tangential stress. The effect of temperature on the velocity of particles in the early stage is greater than that in the late stage.

KEYWORDS:

• Stress
• vehicle model
• discrete element model
• temperature load
• Mmoving load

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

The data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.