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Towards an understanding of the self-healing capacity of asphaltic mixtures

N. Kringos2, A. Schmets2, A. Scarpas2, T. Pauli2
1 Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands
2 Western Research Institute, Wyoming, USA

The self-restoring or healing capacity of asphalt has been known for quite some time. Yet, to this date, there is no consensus of the fundamental mechanism underlying this phenomenon. In this paper a multi-scale model is presented which focuses on the healing phenomenon from a thermodynamic point of view. In the model, healing of bituminous material is simulated at the micro scale via a phase field model, utilizing a modified version of the Cahn Hilliard and Flory-Huggins equations. This model is then connected to a more general elasto-visco-plastic constitutive framework for the simulation of asphalt mixtures. The paper presents the developed hypothesis, the experimental evidence and summarizes some of the theoretical background. The model has been implemented in the 3D finite element system CAPA-3D and preliminary results are shown.