|
Abstract
|
By development of the range of using Finite Element Method in road-construction industry during recent years, pavement construction engineers have tried to adapt this method to analyze pavements. Finite Element Method is able to analyze stability, time-dependent problems and those problems with non-linear properties for the material; although this method is widely used for several sciences, but one of its weak points is that it takes a lot of time for analysis of pavement as well as its requirement for advanced code-writing. In the
present study, a flexible pavement with viscoelastic asphalt layer using ABAQUS finite element software has been modeled. In this model, the influence of velocity on the pavement response has been studied. In order to simulate the silent boundaries, infinite mesh has been used in outer boundary. Numerical results illustrate that increasing the speed leads to a 50% decrease in compressive vertical strain in all layers of pavement. Moreover, increasing the speed up to 80 km/h has a negligible effect on the strains created in the depth lower than the bottom of asphalt layer.
|