Cracking of bituminous materials is one of the main distresses that results in roadway failure. As bituminous media are highly rate-dependent at intermediate temperatures due to the viscoelastic nature of the binding materials, cracking is also highly rate-dependent viscoelastic. This presents a clear need to address the phenomenon in the modeling-analysis process for a more accurate design of mixtures and pavements. This study proposes an advanced computational modeling method to predict complex rate-dependent cracking in bituminous materials and pavements. In particular, we explored an extrinsic nonlinear viscoelastic cohesive zone (NVCZ) integrated with Gaussian damage evolution. To examine the modeling method and its validity, two modeling efforts in multiple length scales were made: mm-scale material-level modeling and cm-m scale hierarchical modeling that linked the mixture with pavement structure. The NVCZ modeling with Gaussian damage evolution successfully predicted material cracking and damage at different loading rates by using a single set of fracture parameters. This implies that the complex cracking behavior of bituminous materials can be characterized by material-specific fracture parameters that can be identified by a simple fracture test. The pavement modeling through a parametric analysis demonstrated the sensitivity and capability of the modeling to effectively capture the interrelated influence of several core design variables, such as traffic, material properties, and layer configurations, all of which affect pavement responses and damage evolution. The computational modeling presented in this study has the scientific rigor to predict nonlinear rate-dependent viscoelastic fracture of bituminous materials and pavements with a good modeling efficiency by significantly reducing laboratory tests.

中文翻译：

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使用具有高斯损伤函数的非线性粘弹性内聚区的沥青介质的速率相关断裂建模

沥青材料开裂是导致道路破坏的主要问题之一。由于粘结材料的粘弹性性质，沥青介质在中间温度下高度依赖于速率，因此开裂也是高度依赖于速率的粘弹性。这显然需要解决建模分析过程中的现象，以便更准确地设计混合料和路面。本研究提出了一种先进的计算建模方法来预测沥青材料和路面中复杂的速率相关开裂。特别是，我们探索了与高斯损伤演化相结合的外在非线性粘弹性内聚区 (NVCZ)。为了检查建模方法及其有效性，在多个长度尺度上进行了两项建模工作：将混合料与路面结构联系起来的 mm 尺度材料级建模和 cm-m 尺度分层建模。具有高斯损伤演化的 NVCZ 建模通过使用​​一组断裂参数成功地预测了不同加载速率下的材料开裂和损伤。这意味着沥青材料的复杂开裂行为可以通过简单的断裂试验确定的材料特定断裂参数来表征。通过参数分析的路面建模证明了建模的敏感性和能力，可以有效捕捉几个核心设计变量的相关影响，例如交通、材料特性和层配置，所有这些都会影响路面响应和损坏演变。