Modeling of the Sulfur-Bituminous Concrete Mix Compaction

Abstract

Modern construction industry is in need of new building materials with improved operational properties. One of such materials is the sulfur-bituminous concrete – composite with matrix formed from sulfur and bitumen mix. Despite the high values of operational properties and economic efficiency of such concrete, there is the lack of necessary knowledge about technological properties of sulfur-bituminous concrete mix. The results of numerical modeling can be used to make initial decisions concerning values of control variables (relevant to mixture and technology). In the given work we present short review of the model and simulation algorithm involving particle systems as a material’s model and discuss the modeling results obtained during numerical studies of compaction process of sulfur-bitumen concrete. It is shown that for aggregates with size of one centimeter the optimal value of average thickness of the sulfur-bitumen layer is near to the one millimeter. Concrete mixes for which this condition is met can be characterized by dense structure similar to face-centered cubic.