Discrete element modeling of dynamic viscoelastic behavior for asphalt mixtures with the time-temperature superposition principle

This paper presents an approach to improve the computation efficiency of discrete element (DE) modeling of dynamic viscoelastic behaviors for asphalt mixtures on the basis of the time-temperature superposition (TTS) principle. The three-dimensional (3D) DE model of asphalt mixture specimen was developed, and uniaxial repeated load creep tests were simulated using discrete element method (DEM) with the TTS principle. The results show that the approach based on the TTS principle can significantly reduce the computation time from several months or years to several hours or days.