Meso-damage behavior of cement stabilized macadam for a long-time immersion based on particle flow theory

Abstract

Water can cause a certain degree of damage to cement stabilized macadam. If cement stabilized macadam is immersed in water for a long time, the degree of damage will be greater. In order to study the damage of cement stabilized macadam with long-time water immersion, a discrete element model of cement stabilized macadam was established in this paper. The Weibull distribution function was used to simulate the heterogeneous contact between particles. The parallel bond model was to simulate the material constitutive relationship. The microscopic parameters of cement-stabilized macadam were obtained by trial-and-error method. The stress-strain curve was obtained by immersion test. The micromechanics behavior of cement stabilized macadam after immersion was analyzed. The results show that the contact area and strength of cement stabilized macadamia immersed for 30 days are 31.4 % and 46 % smaller than that of not immersed macadamia. The force chains between particles are evenly distributed. At the loading peak, the normal contact force between particles is much larger than the tangential force, and the vertical force chain is much larger than the transverse force chain. The distribution of cementation energy/friction energy/impact energy is not uniform in the middle/peak loading stage.