Simulation of the asphalt concrete stiffness degradation using simplified viscoelastic continuum damage model

A procedure based on the simplified viscoelastic continuum damage model is developed to simulate asphalt concrete stiffness degradation caused by the application of cyclic loads. Several tests are performed to characterize the linear viscoelastic and fatigue damage properties of four asphalt mixtures. It was found that the piecewise approach proposed to simulate the stiffness evolution successfully describes the damage growth under loads applications. It was also found that the exponential model used to fit the characteristic curves best describes the stiffness evolution for the entire load history. Finally, stiffness evolution simulations showed higher fatigue resistance for polymer-modified mixtures.