A UNIFIED MODEL FOR MICROMECHANICS DAMAGE IN ASPHALT CONCRETE

The particles distinct element model has the consistency to model the mechanical behavior of the microscopic structures inside an asphalt mixture. The model assumes that the schematized granular constituents are in a contact point, considering the thin asphalt films as the binding elements. In this paper, we will model (at micro-scale) the damage to a surface in asphalt concrete under an impulsive load, considering binding, interface, viscosity and friction. Our aim is to reproduce the micro-damage due to detachment among the elementary components of the concrete in airports pavements. The proposed approach is mainly from a mechanical point of view, and a general model describing adhesive contact between rigid bodies is proposed. The intensity of adhesion is supposed to decrease under prescribed shear and normal displacement fields and comes by energy reduction, where the viscosity and friction contributes are taken in account. A numerical implementation by finite element procedures has been performed, and the outcome is presented