Damage Evolution and Crack Propagation in Semicircular Bending Asphalt Mixture Specimens

The damage and fracture behaviors of semicircular bending (SCB) asphalt mixture specimens with different orientation notches are experimentally and numerically investigated. In the numerical simulations, asphalt mixture is modeled as a two-phase material, namely a mix of coarse aggregates and asphalt mastic, and the mechanical behavior of asphalt mastic is characterized with the damage constitutive model and the damage-based fracture criterion. Some SCB experiments are performed on the asphalt mixture specimens with different orientation notches to validate the numerical method. Finally, the effects of notch orientation and aggregate distribution on crack path, damage distribution, and the load vs. displacement relation are numerically evaluated.