Although the same compaction degree is achieved in practice, asphalt mixture samples prepared by different compaction methods often have different mechanical properties. In this paper, the air void content (AV) and distribution of aggregates and asphalt mortar in the process of asphalt mixture compaction are traced to capture the meso structural change characteristics of asphalt mixture during compaction. Using the discrete element method (DEM), a numerical technique is developed to simulate the laboratory compaction by taking into account the critical aggregate size and boundary effect. First...
