Reflective cracking in airfield pavements – caused by the movement of joints in the underlying concrete – has long been a challenge for maintaining asphalt concrete (AC) overlays. A new study by a team at Arizona State University (ASU) in collaboration with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U. of I.) recently used U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS allocations to create models that could help engineers predict and prevent these costly and safety-critical issues.
Hasan Ozer, an associate professor at the ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, led a team that developed a three-dimensional (3D) modeling framework to better understand how reflective cracks form and propagate. These cracks, influenced by the complex stresses of aircraft gear loading and the design of the underlying pavement, require advanced tools to analyze their mixed modes of formation – both tensile and shearing.
“Using cutting-edge Finite Element Method (FEM) and Generalized Finite Element Method (GFEM) techniques, we used ACCESS allocations on Anvil at Purdue University to create a highly efficient modeling system that balances computational power with usability,” Ozer said. “The approach leveraged a GFEM enrichment strategy and a global-local methodology to develop high fidelity prediction of crack propagation in three-dimensional models of airfield pavements.”
Ozer explained that the team incorporated viscoelastic fracture analysis into their model development to explore how factors like domain size, boundary conditions and approximation orders affect crack behavior. They discovered that crack initiation and growth result from a combination of tensile and shearing forces, paving the way for more precise predictive algorithms.
“We now plan to utilize ACCESS allocations to continue these studies and enhance our modeling capabilities and integrate to the FAA’s airfield pavement design practices,” Ozer said. “With accurate modeling of cracking in airfield pavement infrastructure, our work offers a promising step forward in designing and constructing long-lasting airfield pavements.”
The study, Analysis of reflective cracking in asphalt overlaid jointed concrete airfield pavements using a 3D generalized finite element approach, was published in the International Journal of Pavement Engineering. Funding was provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Technology Research and Development Branch.
Resource Provider Institution(s): Rosen Center for Advanced Computing at Purdue (RCAC)
Resources Used: Anvil
Affiliations: Arizona State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Funding Agency: NSF
Grant or Allocation Number(s): CIV240014
The science story featured here was enabled by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.