A locally homogeneous finite element (FE) model is proposed to account for the heterogeneous internal structures of asphalt mixtures in this study. For this model, the internal structure of the asphalt mixture was divided into several homogeneous parts based on digital image processing (DIP) technology. Within each part, one aggregate or air void inclusion was embedded in asphalt mortar, and the integral material properties were homogenized. By comparison with the currently used mesoscale heterogeneous FE models, the proposed locally homogeneous model was proven to be able to effectively consider the local enhancement of the aggregates especially at low frequencies and also consume much less computational time. In addition, the locally homogeneous asphalt mixtures were coupled into the macroscale asphalt pavement model to analyze the load-bearing capacity of the pavements. Comparing with a fully homogeneous pavement model, the computational results showed that the proposed locally homogeneous model can effectively represent the loading-bearing responses of asphalt pavements. This study indicates that this proposed FE simulation approach is able to balance the computational time and simulation effectivity and thus form a base for providing an efficient and robust platform for future development in the multiscale simulation of asphalt pavements.

提出了局部均质有限元模型来解释沥青混合料内部结构的异质性。对于此模型，基于数字图像处理（DIP）技术，将沥青混合料的内部结构分为几个均匀的部分。在每个部分内，将一种集料或气孔夹杂物嵌入沥青砂浆中，并使整体材料性能均匀化。通过与当前使用的中尺度异质有限元模型进行比较，所提出的局部均质模型已被证明能够有效地考虑骨料的局部增强，尤其是在低频下，并且所消耗的计算时间要少得多。此外，将局部均质的沥青混合料加入到大型沥青路面模型中，分析了路面的承载能力。与完全均质的路面模型相比，计算结果表明，所提出的局部均质模型可以有效地表示沥青路面的承载响应。这项研究表明，本文提出的有限元模拟方法能够在计算时间和模拟有效性之间取得平衡，从而为在沥青路面多尺度模拟中为将来的开发提供有效而强大的平台奠定了基础。计算结果表明，所提出的局部均质模型可以有效地表示沥青路面的承载响应。这项研究表明，本文提出的有限元模拟方法能够在计算时间和模拟有效性之间取得平衡，从而为在沥青路面多尺度模拟中为将来的开发提供有效而强大的平台奠定了基础。计算结果表明，所提出的局部均质模型可以有效地表示沥青路面的承载响应。这项研究表明，本文提出的有限元模拟方法能够在计算时间和模拟有效性之间取得平衡，从而为在沥青路面多尺度模拟中为将来的开发提供有效而强大的平台奠定了基础。