Modeling Mode I Cracking Failure in Asphalt Binder by Using Nonconserved Phase-Field Model
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 4
Abstract
Cracking failure in asphalt binder in winter has always been one of the most serious problems in pavement structures. Classical fracture mechanics is the most widely used method to analyze the initiation and propagation of cracks. In this paper, a new modeling and computational tool—namely, the phase-field method—is proposed for modeling the Mode I cracking failure in asphalt binder. This method describes the microstructure using a phase-field variable that assumes 1 in the intact solid and in the crack region. The fracture toughness is modeled as the surface energy stored in the diffuse interface between the intact solid and crack void. To account for the growth of cracks, a nonconserved Allen-Cahn equation is adopted to evolve the phase-field variable. The energy-based formulation of the phase-field method handles the competition between the growth of surface energy and release of elastic energy in a natural way: the crack propagation is a result of the energy minimization in the direction of the steepest descent. Both the linear elasticity and phase-field equation are solved in a unified finite-element framework, which is implemented in commercial software. The Mode I crack simulation is performed for validation. It was discovered that the onset of crack propagation agrees very well with the Griffith criterion and experimental results.
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Acknowledgments
The research performed in this paper was part of the Asphalt Research Consortium Project. The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for funding and the project panel for advising. The authors would also like to thank Mr. Rui Sha for participating in the asphalt cracking experiments.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 4 • April 2014
Pages: 684 - 691
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 16, 2012
Accepted: Jun 11, 2013
Published online: Jun 13, 2013
Discussion open until: Nov 13, 2013
Published in print: Apr 1, 2014
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