A Three-Dimensional Aggregate Generation and Packing Algorithm for Modeling Asphalt Mixture with Graded Aggregates

Abstract

A three-dimensional aggregate generation and packing algorithm applicable for modeling asphalt mixture with high content of graded aggregates is presented in this paper. In the algorithm, arbitrary-shaped polyhedra are used to model aggregates, so that the effect of aggregate shape on the mechanical performance of asphalt mixture can be considered. The algorithm consists of two steps: Aggregate generation and packing. Polyhedra are created by extending triangular fundaments and treated as visualized aggregates after passing through convex control and sharpness judgment. After that, graded aggregates are taken out from the aggregate base and randomly packed in a given cylindrical or cubical region one by one equiprobably. Overlapping between nearby aggregates is avoided by the help of Boolean partition operation in ANSYS. Finally, some asphalt mixture samples with a given gradation are modeled as examples, and their effective elastic properties and creep behaviors under uniaxial compression are simulated.

Validation and Investigation on the Mechanical Behavior of Concrete Using a Novel 3D Mesoscale Method

“…Nevertheless, the spherical or ellipsoidal particles do not agree well with the real particle shape in the actual materials. Then polyhedral particles [9,18] were used to establish the mesoscale model of concrete. Wang et al [19] developed “taking-and-placing” method to generate 3D mesoscale structures with randomly distributed polyhedral aggregates.…”

“…Finite element (FE) computation is another problem for mesoscale modeling due to the complex mixture of three different materials. For quasi-static loading conditions, dynamic transient analysis was employed in most papers [18,19,33,36]. It determines a solution to the dynamic equilibrium equation by kinematic state from the previous increment; as a result, inertia and spurious oscillation in the simulation could lead to uncontrollable deviations, especially in damage analysis.…”

Experimental and numerical analysis of three-point bending fracture of pre-notched asphalt mixture beam

“…Kristiansen et al [11] and Al-Raoush and Alsaleh [12] used random ellipses with different shapes and dimensions to model aggregates and disperse particles to evaluate mechanical properties of concrete and polydisperse particle materials, respectively. Xu et al [13] proposed a novel aggregate generation and packing algorithm, in which coarse aggregates were more closely modeled as convex polyhedrons extended from some triangular fundaments, but there is an aggregate content discrepancy. As an improvement of aggregate content accuracy, Yang et al [14] presented an advanced efficient algorithm, in which graded aggregates were modeled as regular convex polyhedrons with different sizes.…”

The spherical primitive and perlin noise method to recreate realistic aggregate shapes

“…This is because laboratory studies of material behaviour are expensive and time consuming. On the other hand, most of the computer simulations of granular materials at the scale levels, still have drawbacks such as generating realistic randomized 3D particles, which are difficult to generate [4][5][6] and the computational cost involved in quantifying the interaction between numerous particles [7,8].…”