A New Viscoelastic Micromechanical Model for Bitumen-Filler Mastic

A new micromechanical model for predicting viscoelastic properties of mastic is proposed and validated with experiments. The developed model is based on the finite element method and allows predicting the viscoelastic properties of mastic by means of the fundamental mechanical and geometrical properties of its constituents. The influence of modelling parameters on the model’s accuracy is evaluated and optimal parameter combinations are identified. It is shown that the proposed model can capture the measured viscoelastic behaviour of mastics for the range of loading, temperature and material parameters examined. Accordingly, it may be a useful tool for optimizing mastics material design meeting the target viscoelastic properties.QC 20200430