Caracterização viscoelástica linear de misturas asfálticas: operacionalização computacional e análise pelo método dos elementos finitos

• Ano de defesa: 2009
• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Henrique Nogueira
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Transportes; Método dos elementos finitos
• Link de acesso: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/4907

An asphalt mixture has a complex mechanical behavior can be idealized by a viscoelastoplastic model that considers the existence of recoverable (elastic and viscoelastic) and non-recoverable deformations (plastic and viscoplastic). However, the state of the art of Brazilian research has considered a more restricted model, the linear viscoelastic model. This model treats the mechanical behavior of the material as dependent on the load and the corresponding (temporal) rate, which represents a considerable advance in mechanical-computational modeling of asphalt mixtures compared to the linear elastic (classic) model commonly employed on projects of national pavement design. But the viscoelastic model has some drawbacks that hinder its use. A first drawback is that for a representation compatible with the experimental data, the constitutive viscoelastic characterization requires handling a large number of Prony series coefficients, which makes difficult the curve fitting process and subsequent handling of the series. Futhermore, the formal process of interconversion between the fundamental viscoelastic properties, commonly required for operational reasons, is a non-trivial task. In order to enable the employment of the theory of (linear) viscoelasticity in the characterization of asphalt mixtures, this study proposed the development of a specific computer program that facilitates the use of the linear viscoelastic model. This program carries out curve fitting of Prony series and interconversion of fundamental viscoelastic properties in time domain, namely, Creep Compliance D(t) and Relaxation Modulus E(t). As a main result, it was possible to use this program in characterization of two national typical mixtures, Sand Asphalt (SA) and Asphalt Concrete (AC), showing in details the steps necessary for a proper viscoelastic constitutive representation. Also as part of the results, it was tested the efficacy of the technique of curve fitting by Nonlinear Least Squares (NLS) for the Prony series, under the expectation of incorporating this technique in future versions of this ongoing software. In order to explain the advances that viscoelastic model can enable in mechanical simulation of pavement, instead of using the elastic (classic) model, at the end of this study it was performed computational analysis using the Finite Element Method (FEM) to estimate the mechanical design parameters of pavements (stress and strains), considering the viscoelastic model of the investigated asphalt mixtures, SA and AC.