Induction Heating-Assisted Compaction in Porous Asphalt Pavements: A Computational Study

Low temperature asphalt (LTA) technologies, such as warm-mixed asphalt mixes, are utilized in the paving industry to lower energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions during asphalt mixing and pavement construction. However, the asphalt mixes developed that incorporate LTA additives are more sensitive than hot-mixed asphalts to temperature reduction during compaction, which leads to inadequate compaction and subsequent poor pavement performance. The induction heating-assisted compaction of pavement structures appears to be an effective way to ameliorate such issues and to improve mix compactability at lower temperatures. Considering that induction-assisted compaction is a complex process, a computational methodology is proposed in this paper. A porous asphalt concrete mix was considered as case material. For the pavement compaction analyses after induction, the temperature field generated by electromagnetic induction was predicted and the material parameters of asphalt mortar were adjusted. The effect of induction heating on asphalt compaction effectiveness, the tendency of mix density changing, the increase in compactor passes, and the influence of temperature on compaction at different locations in the pavement were studied as well.