Multi-scale analysis of asphalt mixture in layered road structure

The Mori-Tanaka averaging scheme is introduced in the place of demanding finite element analysis to assess the time-dependent macroscopic response of asphalt mixture as a part of the multi-layered road construction. In this computational framework the Mori-Tanaka method [1] is chosen to substitute the macroscopic constitutive model, which is not available in general. Instead we expect that the local constitutive laws of individual phases are known which allows for the derivation of macroscopic stresses and an instantaneous homogenized stiffness matrix of an asphalt layer through homogenization. The choice of the Mori-Tanaka method is supported by micromechanical analysis of a real microstructure of Mastic Asphalt mixture showing reasonable agreement with finite element simulations employing certain statistically equivalent periodic unit cell. This makes the application of the Mori-Tanaka method particularly attractive owing to computationally demanding nonlinear analysis of the layered system with subsoil deformation being governed by one of the available constitutive models for soils. Comparison with application of the macroscopic constitutive model for asphalt mixture, provided by detailed multi-scale homogenization, is also presented