Abstract:Three dimensional finite element model for asphalt pavement structure with semi rigid or flexible base was proposed. It was used to analyze the influence of nonlinearity of granule and subgrade soil on the mechanical responses of airport asphalt pavement under loading of aircraft B737, B767 and B777. It was shown that the influence of material nonlinearity increased as the aircraft loading increased. The influence of subgrade nonlinearity is not obvious on the mechanical response. For the semi rigid base airport pavements, the influence of granula nonlinearity and that of both subgrade and granula is little on the surface deflection at the top of the surface and the vertical compressive strain at the top of the subgrade, but is great on the tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layers and the tensile stress at the bottom of semi rigid base. For the flexible airport pavement, the influence of granula nonlinearity is little on the surface deflection and is great on the tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layers. Both the influence of subgrade nonlinearity and granula nonlinearity is great on the tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layers.
