Highway Asphalt Pavement Structural Nonlinear Analysis

In this paper, finite element program, MSC. NASTRAN, was employed to analyse the structural response of the three-dimensional asphalt pavement under the quiescent load. Effect of the nonlinear property of the subgrade on the determination of the moduli of the subgrade, the semi-rigid subbase and semi-rigid basecourse was explored. Especially, the deferences between the linear analysis and nonlinear analysis for the asphalt pavement were examined. Influence of the pavement parameters on elasto-plastic analysis for asphalt pavement was also studied. Finally, the practical meaning of the parameters was explained. In addition, mechanism of the damage of the asphalt pavement was tentatively probed and some new measures were put forward.