A multiscale DEM-FEM approach to investigate the tire-pavement friction

Fundamental understandings of the pavement-tire friction are vital to improve the design of asphalt pavements. Most of the current research on pavement-tire friction is based on Finite Element Method (FEM), which is relatively complex and difficult to simulate the discontinuity during friction. To overcome the limitations, in this paper, the pavement-tire friction process is investigated using a coupled Multi-scale Discrete Element Method (DEM) - FEM approach. The benefit of such a multiscale method is that DEM has the advantage of simulating the discontinuity behaviour during friction, and FEM is good at simulating the continuum material with low computation consumption. The multi-scale approach provides an innovative and promising approach to simulate the tire-pavement friction behaviour.