Analysis Of Asphalt Pavement With Cracks Using Finite Element Method

With the growing of traffic volume and car number, base cracking has become one of the main forms of premature fracture damage of asphalt pavement. Under the repeated application of traffic load and temperature load, the micro cracks in base course expand, increase, interconnect, and finally form visible cracks, which badly influence the continuity and integrity of asphalt pavement. So it is necessary to make a theoritical study for the crack asphalt pavement structure. The introduction of the theory of fracture mechanics can solve the problem of the stress concentration on the crack tip. The combination of the fracture mechanics and the finite element method provides an effective way to simulate crack in asphalt pavement.This paper uses fracture mechanics theory and finite-element analysis to carry out the theoretical analysis research of cracked asphalt pavement structure. With the help of ABAQUS Finite Analysis Software, a mechanics analysis model of base layer asphalt pavement with base crack is established to analyses the static characteristics and dynamic characteristics of asphalt pavement under traffic load.As to the static load, a computation model has been established, which include the consideration of the two different kinds of adverse load modes containing the traffic load is applied symmetrically on the top and applied on the side of the cracks.and analyzed the influenced rules of stress intensity factor KⅠ,KⅡimpacted by structural parameters like the crack depth.This paper has established dynamic loading analysis model of pavement structure; studied relations of the parameters and the natural frequency of the pavement structure; analyzed the influence of the vehicle speed, load and the geometrical parameters of structure subjected by the dynamic load to the stress intensity factor at the crack tip; compared the differences of dynamic response between the crack asphalt pavement and the intact asphalt pavement.The conclusion gotten from the above study can provide a useful reference for further study.