Evaluation of Rutting Susceptibility of Bituminous Mixes Using Finite Element Modeling

Abstract

Pavement performance mainly depends on the quality of bituminous mixes. Poor bituminous mixes cause premature failures such as rutting or permanent deformation, cracking, bleeding etc. The design of bituminous mixes should contain certain criteria to prevent premature failures. The mixes designed based on these criteria are generally known as performance based mix design and are gaining popularity in the recent times. Among various types of pavement failures, permanent deformation or rutting in bituminous mixes is one of the major concerns on high volume roads. With the increase in the traffic volumes, vehicle axle loads and tire pressures; there is a need to know the rut resistance of bituminous mixes in advance before construction. On the basis of experimental and modeling, several methods are in practice to assess the rutting resistance of bituminous mixes. Simulative tester such as wheel load tester is one of the equipment used to predict the rutting behavior of bituminous mixes on experimental basis. However, testing of bituminous mixes in these equipment are time consuming and often expensive. On the other hand, application of finite element modeling techniques to some extent, gives an idea on the performance of the mix in a shorter time. The paper presents a three-dimensional finite element model developed for predicting the rutting susceptibility of mix using the commercially available finite element program ANSYS. The results from model can be effectively used to relate the laboratory rutting test results