Modelling damage to asphalt concrete surface: theory and numerical applications

This paper presents a micro-scale model to investigate the damage to a surface in asphalt concrete under an impulsive load. Our aim is to reproduce the micro-damage due to detachment among the elementary components of the asphalt concrete in airports pavements. The general framework for models to describe adhesive contact between rigid bodies is developed supposing the intensity of adhesion decreasing under tangential and normal displacement fields. Finally, a numerical implementation has been performed by FEM approach and the results are illustrated in the paper.