#Comsol multiphysics modeling guide 4.2 software#

In this study, the APSSA sample used for the experiments to obtain the parameters of the model was asphalt mixture with 5.1 wt% laboratory-prepared functional additive (CaCl 2-zeolite/p-epoxy) #16.

This work pioneered a numerical model with the COMSOL Multiphysics to predict the anti-icing life of a thin overlay of APSSA when subjected to varying precipitation, temperature, thermal cracking, and fatigue cracking over time. The two activities can be well modeled and linked by the cooperation of the two interfaces of the FEM software. For APSSA, ionic transport from the inside to the surface must be facilitated by water, and the process include two activities: water transport in asphalt mastic and salt-storage additive (SSA) followed by ion (e.g., chloride) transport due to concentration gradient.

Among them, the phase transport in porous media (phtr) interface in the subsurface flow module and the transport of diluted species (tds) interface in the chemical reaction engineering module have been widely applied for simulating multi-phase flow (e.g., water–air flow) in porous media and simulating ionic ingress into cement concrete due to concentration gradient, respectively.

#Comsol multiphysics modeling guide 4.2 software#

This software supports the simulation of designs involving single or coupled physics such as electromagnetics, structural mechanics, acoustics, fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical engineering, etc. The COMSOL Multiphysics is a cross-platform finite element method (FEM) based multiphysics simulation software. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a systematic model for a more mechanistic and reliable prediction of the anti-icing life of APSSA. No model has been developed to predict the anti-icing life of APSSA. Although many studies have worked on modeling ions (e.g., chloride) transport from the outside to the inside of cement concrete, no one has simulated outward ions (e.g., chloride) transport in asphalt pavement or cement concrete. Another significant deficiency of those predictions is neglect of a comprehensive consideration of the factors influencing the anti-icing life of APSSA, such as environmental conditions (e.g., precipitation and temperature) and pavement conditions (e.g., thermal cracking and fatigue cracking). However, these estimations were overly simplified, rough, and inaccurate because of lack of a mechanistic model. Graphical abstractĪ few studies have reported that the anti-icing life of asphalt pavement with salt-storage additive (APSSA) can be calculated with predictive equations incorporating laboratory experiments. These two pavement temperatures are equivalent to 97.4-percentile and 96.3-percentile of historical hourly pavement temperature near Pullman, Washington. The simulation results show that the anti-icing function of a 16-mm thick overlay was fully effective in 2 years and 5 years for the minimum pavement temperature above -3.4 ☌ and -2.4 ☌, respectively. Water transport that obeys the law of conservation of mass was modeled using the phase transport in porous media (phtr) interface of COMSOL, while chloride transport based on Fick’s second law was modeled with the transport of diluted species (tds) interface. The simulation included two parts: water transport followed by chloride transport. The water and chloride transport in the overlay when subjected to varying precipitation, temperature, thermal cracking, and fatigue cracking over time were modeled using a Finite Element Method based software. This study established a systematic simulation framework to predict the anti-icing longevity of a thin overlay of asphalt pavement with salt-storage additive (APSSA).