Fast 3D Voronoi and Voxel–Based Mesostructure Modeling Method for Asphalt Concrete

Abstract

A fast three-dimensional (3D) Voronoi and voxel based mesostructure modeling method was proposed for asphalt concrete. This method combine the advantages of the Voronoi diagram, voxel meshing, and take-and-place techniques and can be divided into three stages. First, the specimen space was divided into Voronoi cells that provided clear boundaries for the aggregates to be generated. Then, the voxel model of the specimen space was established and the voxels within the Voronoi cells were regarded as the finite elements (FEs) of the aggregates via a voxel mapping process in the second stage. Both the space division process and the voxel mapping process were repeated until aggregates with a desired gradation were obtained. The last stage was to generate air voids by randomly deleting the asphalt mortar elements via a take-and-place strategy. The effectiveness of this method was validated by the complex modulus testing data of a real asphalt concrete. A common FE simulation workflow that generally separates the processes of establishing the geometry models and FE meshes was employed. The results showed that the proposed method only spent ten of seconds, less than 1% of the time required by the common workflow, to obtain the mesostructural FE models, but exhibited very similar mesomechanical results to those from the common method. Therefore, the proposed method enables a fast entry into the FE analysis stage and can be expected to be an efficient tool in simulating the mesomechanical behavior of asphalt concrete.