Application of Dynamic Relaxation in Thermo-Elastic Structural Analysis of Highway Pavement Structures

This paper describes the application of the dynamic relaxation technique implemented in LS-DYNA in analyzing large transportation structures as dowel jointed concrete pavements under the effect of temperature variations. The main feature of the pavement model is the detailed modeling of dowel bars and their interfaces with the surrounding concrete using extremely fine mesh of solid elements, while in the bridge structure, it is the detailed modeling of the girder-deck interface as well as the bracing members between the girders. The 3DFE results were found to be in a good agreement with experimentally measured data obtained from instrumented pavements sections constructed in West Virginia. Thus, such a technique provides a good tool for analyzing the response of large structures to static loads in a fraction of the time required by traditional implicit finite element methods.