Investigating Performance of Cold In-Place Recycled Asphalt Sections Using Heavy-Weight Deflectometer Testing and Finite Element Modeling

This study numerically investigated the responses of cold in-place recycled (CIR) asphalt sections in heavy-weight deflectometer (HWD) testing. A 3D finite element (FE) model was built for an instrumented pavement section containing a 71 mm CIR layer. To determine the appropriate mesh size and model dimension, simulation results generated from the elastic model were compared with predictions obtained from BAKFAA and KENPAVE software tools. Then, the linear viscoelastic model was used to capture the deformation of the surface asphalt layer, with its Prony series parameters determined from experimental dynamic complex modulus tests. Good agreements were achieved between the calculated surface deflection at various locations and the measured responses from field HWD testing, which validated this developed numerical model can be used to capture the deformation of CIR pavement sections. This study is expected to provide useful suggestions for innovative pavement design under more complex conditions in future research.