Review on advances in modeling and simulation of stone-based paving materials

Stone-based paving materials, including unbound aggregates, asphalt concrete, and Portland cement concrete, play significant roles in pavement engineering. They are usually used in construction of roadways, airports, parking lots, and walkways. Even though each of those materials has its own unique structural and mechanical properties, all of them are similarly constructed of aggregate-skeleton, binding medium, and air voids. Therefore, there are some potential links among those materials and some unified approaches or theories which are suitable for all of the materials. This paper herein presents a comprehensive review of the existing research efforts in modeling and simulation of stone-based paving materials with purpose of searching possible links among the individual studies and providing recommendations for future studies. The review includes studies in the area of simulation and analysis of asphalt concrete, Portland cement concrete, and unbound base materials with various methods including discrete element method, finite element method, and some analytical approaches. Through this review, it was concluded that various methods have been developed to model or simulate stone-based paving materials and the majority of them were used for purposes of prediction and validation. Additional research efforts are expected to unify the exiting methods and develop a fundamental mechanical theory which can be used to analyze all kinds of stone-based materials.