Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Investigation on asphalt-screed interaction during pre-compaction:

Improving paving effect via numerical simulation
Chonghui Wang, Milad Moharekpour ⇑, Quan Liu, Zeyu Zhang, Pengfei Liu, Markus Oeser
Institute of Highway Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, 52074, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Pavement pre-compaction is vital for asphalt pavement construction due to its influence on the quality
Received 1 February 2021 and service life of asphalt pavement. Conventional methods of evaluating and researching the pavement
Received in revised form 20 March 2021 pre-compaction are based on mixture density with empirical theories, which cannot provide an under-
Accepted 22 March 2021
standing of asphalt-screed interaction during pre-compaction. An innovative approach is developed in
this paper to evaluate pavement pre-compaction through Discrete Element Model (DEM) simulation.
The contact model and input parameters were discussed and defined separately based on the real condi-
Keywords:
tion of paving compaction. A field test about paving compaction was conducted as well for the model val-
Pavement compaction
Paving screed
idation, in the test track, the operations of paving machine can be adjusted such as paving speed, paving
Aggregate movement angle, and paving thickness. In addition, the optimized working operation was recommended in this
Discrete element method paper based on the results from DEM simulation as well as filed test. Finally, a method to evaluate the
Field test pre-compaction of bulk materials via the average aggregate angular velocity was proposed in this study
Test track and validated through the test track, and the index Compaction Increase Ratio (CIR) was defined to com-
pare and describe the quality of pre-compaction.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Asphalt pavement compaction is one of the most vital phases
during road construction, which can determine the service quality
as well as durability of the pavement. During the process of pave-
ment construction, the compaction phase consists of two main
stages. The first stage is compaction by a paver; it can be called
the preliminary compaction or paving compaction. The other part
is the finishing by a different combination of rollers (still, vibrating,
pneumatic, etc.) [1]. Therefore, the required density of the pave-
ment compaction can be attributed to the initial density com-
pacted by the paver and the final density behind the rollers [2].
According to construction guidance from different countries, the
evaluation of the quality of pavement compaction normally relies
on the required density, and is always assessed after the final com-
paction finished by the rollers [3]. However, during the compaction
the dominant density and strength of asphalt pavement has
already been reached after paver, the preliminary frame structure
of mixture has been formed as well. [1,3–6] The mechanical beha-
viour of the pavement is directly determined by the skeleton, and
its durability will be consequently affected by the quality of the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: moharekpour@isac.rwth-aachen.de (M. Moharekpour).
paver compaction. On the other hand, if the pavement was con-
structed with inadequate paving compaction, the evenness of the
road surface would be influenced, as there can be wave asymmetry
deformation caused by rolling compaction [2]. Xu et al. proved that
adequate preliminary compaction from a paver can guarantee the
overall quality of compaction, as well as being very helpful for roll-
ing compaction (e.g. reducing the passes of roller compaction) [7].
One of the core parts of a paver is the screed, which works as a
vibrating compactor, paving the material using its own weight.
Meanwhile, the screed is connected to the main body of paver
through the screed tow point, this articulated point makes it cap-
able for the screed to pave and compact material with a floating
function. The floating function of the screed can diminish the irreg-
ularities on the ground when the paver passes over. In addition, the
thickness of the paved material can also be liberated adjusted,
altered by the screed tow point when adjusting the paving angle.
Generally, a screed of paver consists of tamper and screed plates
(see Fig. 1), which accommodates the compacting systems to pro-
vide high density, a smooth surface, and durable results[8–10]. The
tamper, working with a higher vibration is supposed to provide
pre-compaction of the laid material, while a relatively lower vibra-
tion was imposed to the screed plate to vibrate the paving layer for
achieving an optimal even surface. Another function of the tamper
is to improve the bearing capacity of the laid material so that the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123164
0950-0618/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
Fig. 1. Main parts of a paver screed: tamper and screed plate [8–10].
screed can float well on the paved material. If the paving speed was
increased without considering matching the frequency of tamper,
there would be a change in uplift of the screed, and thus the paving
thickness would decrease as well. On the other hand, increasing
the tamper vibration without matching the paving speed would
result in a rise of the pre-compaction, the paving thickness would
be altered as well. As for the paver, the paving angle is also very
important during paving compaction, the optimized angle of pav-
ing compaction indicates the optimized position of the tamper.
Besides the asphalt mixture, other materials such as the subbase
of pavement, concrete, or railway ballast can also be paved by
the paver with special tamper profiles. Theoretically the operation
of the screed vibration and paving speed are also determined by
the type of material, the mixture gradation, and paving tempera-
ture, as these factors have direct influence on the quality of paving
compaction [11,12].
The compaction of pavement is important for its service quality
during a lifetime, so the change in pavement density has been
measured and studied extensively including laboratory experi-
ments and field tests [13–15]. Existing experiments always mea-
sure samples manufactured in the laboratory or the drilled cores
from field tests, with the aid of conventional tests or imaging tech-
nics such as X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) scanning. On the
other hand, in field tests, non-destructive methods are used includ-
ing nuclear and nonnuclear gauges, which are the most two com-
monly applied approaches for compaction assessment, and also
with ground-penetrating radar [16,17]. However, both lab- and
field tests have limitations. The laboratory tests are always easier
to be manufactured, but with less precision when compared with
field tests. As for the field tests, drilling samples is destructive
and can only measure density information at discrete locations.
The non-destructive methods are more flexible but can be easily
interrupted by environmental conditions such as humidity, tem-
perature changes, and the influence of impurities, etc. [15,16,18].
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Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
In recent years, computational-aided methods, such as Finite
Element Method (FEM) and Discrete Element Method (DEM) have
been extensively used to simulate and study the macro- and micro
mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures [19–22]. For modelling
the macroscopic behaviour of the asphalt layer in its preliminary
compacted state and during a roller pass, continuum mechanics
(i.e. FEM) can be used, as seen in [23]. In research of Liu et al.,
the mechanical response of asphalt mixture compacted by differ-
ent methods was analysed using FEM simulation [24]. As indicated
by the above studies, FEM is a promising approach to studying the
homogenous and Isotropic materials. However, the computing
expense and efficiency of FEM will considerably increase when
asphalt mixtures are studied as anisotropic or discrete materials
[25].
DEM has attracted a lot of interests in the simulation of aniso-
tropy material and micro-mechanical properties since it was intro-
duced by Cundall in the 1970s [26,27]. DEM was designed to
simulate mechanical process of granular materials. This simulation
has the access to provide an innovative and effective approach to
enhance the understanding of building materials’ properties [28–
30]. In DEM simulation, bulk materials are usually treated as an
assembly of two dimensional (2D) disks or three dimensional
(3D) spheres [26,27], or else as clumps of these shapes made by
rigidly connecting and overlapping multiple disks or spheres
[31–33]. According to the conventional DEM method [26], the
interactions between aggregates and between an aggregate and a
boundary can be envisioned as a pair of elastic springs with con-
stant normal and shear stiffnesses acting at the contact point.
These two springs have specified tensile and shear strengths. Later
the significance of the rotational inertia and energy loss in rotation
of particles has been highlighted in numerical simulation
[29,34,35] as well as in laboratory testing [36–38]. Moreover, Liu
et al. further modified the generation method of aggregates and
studied the sieving phenomenon of aggregate with real angularity
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
using DEM [28], but the generation of ‘‘real aggregates” via clumps
in DEM requires more time for calculation.
To this end, this research concerns the development of the pav-
ing compaction model in DEM using the random generation of bulk
materials, and tries to validate this model in a test track with real
setting of a paver machine. The particles were defined and simpli-
fied as a certain number of spheres to improve the calculating effi-
ciency. Several variables of the paver machine have been
considered during field pre-compaction, namely paving thickness,
paving angle of the screed, and paving speed. The dynamic
responses of bulk materials are monitored in simulation, to help
with optimizing the operation during paving compaction.
2. Research strategy
The objective of this paper is to simulate the paving process
considering the interaction between the materials and the paving
equipment, and to study the compaction behaviour of both
machinery and materials. To achieve this goal, a pre-compaction
DEM model was developed, and the model of both materials and
the paving machine were generated separately. Besides, selecting
the parameters of materials was determined via the laboratory
tests, while the setting of the paver’s working operations was set
based on the real conditions at the field construction site. The
parameters (paving thickness, paving angle of the screed, and pav-
ing speed) used in this model can be adjusted for model validation.
During the simulation, the data was obtained in terms of angular
velocity of aggregates, the stress analysis of paver, and the energy
transmission of the particles. Finally, the mechanical test in the
field was conducted with a paver machine, the results were com-
pared and analysed with the paving simulation in DEM. An over-
view of the methodology is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Overview of Research Methodology.
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Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
3. Development of discrete element model for paver
compaction
In DEM simulation, bulk materials are usually treated as an
assembly of granular materials interacting at contact points, which
can be applied for characterizing the behaviour of bulk materials
under significant deformation. Newton’s second law was used as
a basic algorithm to calculate the kinetic behaviour of aggregates
as well as force-law displacement between the contact points.
The equations of motion in the simulation are integrated using
an explicit central finite difference algorithm, which involves a
time step.
The numerical simulation was adopted to investigate the pre-
compaction efficiency of asphalt pavement, since it works with
crucial insight into how the bulk material interacts with the paver
over a range of operating and process conditions. In the DEM sim-
ulation, the parameter selection, model generation, and description
of its contact mechanism will be discussed in this section. The field
test was then applied for model validation.
3.1. Contact model and parameters
A contact model describes how elements behave when they
have contact with each other. The interaction between bulk mate-
rials and equipment will be defined after the model has been gen-
erated. The interactions between aggregates can be simplified as a
pair of elastic springs with constant normal and shear stiffness
properties acting at the contact point. These two springs have spec-
ified tensile and shear strengths. In addition, the frictional beha-
viour is determined by the perfect elastoplastic model via the
micro scaled index friction angle [26]. The elastic contact will be
imposed on the entire model at the macroscopic scale after the
local scale contact has been defined, and the macro deformation
of the bulk material will then be performed based on it. However,
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al. Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
this type of contact interaction can only describe the behaviour of a2
d¼  4pca=E ð2Þ
granular material without bonding from the binder. R
For asphalt materials, one of the significant issues is the bond-
Here, a is the contact radius, E*is the equivalent Young’s modu-
ing with viscoelastic properties. In the DEM simulation, except
lus and R* is the equivalent radius, which are defined as
for the linear contact, another interface between particles is
 
bonded, namely binder phase, which is modelled by adding a vis-  
1 1  v 2i 1  v 2j
coelastic film around each particle. In this model, the thickness ¼ þ ð3Þ
of the binder film wrapped on the surface of aggregates is assumed E Ei Ej
to be of constant value, which means the binder is assumed to be
uniformly attached to the surface of the aggregate. The thickness of 1 1 1
the film obtains the correct volume of the binder phase according ¼ þ ð4Þ
R Ri Rj
to the simulated bitumen content. This film in simulation can be
generated by defining the particle radius and contact radius (parti- Here, Ei, vi, Ri, and Ej, vj, Rj are the Young’s modulus, Poisson’s
cle radius plus the thickness of bitumen film) of a particle, respec- ratio, and radius of each sphere in contact. In DEM, the Hertz-
tively (see Fig. 3). The viscous bond between two particles acts in Mindlin mode was applied for calculating the normal and tangen-
parallel with the linear elastic contact. This contact can only be tial forces, and the JKR here is responsible for the cohesion force
activated when the surface gap of the two particles is zero or less calculation. The parameters in simulation can be seen in Table 1.
than the sum of the film thicknesses of the two particles. Other- The parameters of the material used in the simulation were
wise, this bond will break and the particles will not stick to each selected based on previous studies [25,45–47].
other. In DEM, the cohesive properties are imposed to bulk materi-
als by defining the contact radius of the particle, which can be used
3.2. Development of pre-compaction model in DEM
for asphalt mixture bonding simulation. The interaction of contact
radiuses between particles is illustrated in Fig. 3. Where gn is the
The 3D model of DEM was utilized in this paper to simulate the
contact gap, kn and ks are normal and shear stiffnesses, m is the fric-
pre-compaction of asphalt pavement, in which the aggregates were
tion coefficient, cs and cn are shear and normal critical-damping
generated as clumps with defined morphology consisting of over-
ratios. The kn and ks are normal and shear stiffnesses of bond load.
lapped spherical elements.
In the DEM simulation, the coefficient of friction and the rolling
The core mission of this research is to simulate the pre-
resistance between particle and geometry were defined separately.
compaction, namely the paving process and the interaction
And the Hertz-Mindlin with JKR (Johnson-Kendall-Roberts) model
between the materials and the paving equipment. The model of
was selected for particle-to-particle interaction, which can add
both bulk materials and the equipment initially need to be gener-
cohesive behaviour on the aggregates’ interaction. The cohesive
ated separately. There are several steps for the procedure to gener-
interaction of this model can be defined by the parameter surface
ate the pre-compaction model in DEM simulation: (1) Finishing the
energy [39].
geometry sketch of the paver in AutoCAD, (2) importing the output
Hertz-Mindlin with JKR Cohesion is a cohesion contact model
from AutoCAD into DEM as the geometry of paving equipment, and
that accounts for the influence of Van der Waals forces within
separately defining the physical properties of the geometries with
the contact zone and allows the user to model strongly adhesive
several physical parameters, (3) generating the clumps as the tem-
systems, such as wet materials or asphalt mixtures [40–44]. In this
plates of particles, calculating the geometrical properties (inertia
model, the implementation of normal elastic contact force is based
moment etc.) of the aggregates via their morphologies, and defin-
on the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts theory [39]. Hertz-Mindlin with
ing the physical and mechanical properties of them according to
JKR cohesion uses the same calculations as the Hertz-Mindlin (no
laboratory tests, (4) generating a factory in the model for aggre-
slip) contact model for the following types of force: tangential elas-
gates generation, which was used to define the location, the timing,
tic force, normal dissipation force, and tangential dissipation force.
and the nature of the particle appearance in the simulation, (5)
JKR normal force depends on the overlap d and the interaction
after defining the parameter which determined the interaction
parameter, surface energy c, in the following way
between paving equipment and bulk material, the aggregates were
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
4E randomly generated according to the templates, and the size distri-
F JKR ¼ 4 pcE a3=2 þ  a3 ð1Þ bution followed the self-defined gradation. Fig. 4 illustrates the
3R
model of pre-compaction in DEM simulation.

Fig. 3. Visualization of contact between two particles with binder phase.

4
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al. Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164

Table 1 3.3. Virtual simulation of the pre-compaction

Material parameters in simulation.

Property Value Unit In order to study the influence of paver working operations on
Young’s Modulus 10 GPa the quality of pre-compaction during the paving process, different
Poisson’s ratio 0.25 – working parameters were selected in this research to simulate the
Coefficient of restitution 0.5 – paving process. In the simulations, the speed of the paving
Coefficient of friction 0.7 – machine, the paving thickness of the pavement, and the paving
Density of particles 2500 kg/m3
angle of the machine are each altered in different models. The pav-
ing speeds were selected as 5 m/min, 6 m/min, and 7 m/min. The
paving angles were set as 0°, 1°, and 2°. The paving thickness,
The mechanical properties of bulk materials are determined by which is the height of pavement after paving, was set at 4 cm,
the set of local mechanical parameters (stiffness and friction 5 cm, and 6 cm separately.
between contact points) and geometric characteristics (special During paving compaction in simulation, different parts of the
assemble, size distribution, and morphology) of particles. Since model geometry had distinct types of movement. The type of
the highlight of this study is to model the pre-compaction of geometry could be set as physical or virtual, a physical section is
asphalt pavement at full-scale, the aim is not to generate the an actual surface or volume that particles can interact with. A vir-
aggregates with a real shape due to the prohibitively long calcula- tual section (used to create particle generator) is a surface or vol-
tion period this method would require. More capacity of calcula- ume of interest that does not actually exist and does not interact
tion can therefore be imposed for simulating the mechanical with anything in a simulation. As for the tamper and screed plate
behaviour of the bulk material with large deformation. of the paver, they both have a vibration in the vertical direction

Fig. 4. Pre-compaction model in DEM simulation.

Fig. 5. Traction monitoring of paver in field test.

5
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
but with different frequencies, which are used for pavement mate-
rial pre-compaction and surface smoothing, respectively. The tam-
per and screed plate were added as a type of movement which
could be defined by loop duration, frequency, offset, displacement
magnitude, and move direction. The auger of the paver is used to
divide and distributed material evenly on the road surface, this
function is achieved by its rotational movement which is defined
by rotation kinetic option, parameter initial rotation velocity, loop
duration, acceleration and axis of rotation. Additionally, all parts of
the paver also have a horizontal movement which drags the
machine to move forward, which is defined by a stable horizontal
velocity.
3.4. Experimental test of pre-compaction for model validation
Most of the existing research related to pavement compaction
have been based on simplified or ideal experiments in a laboratory,
which can cause variation in results compared to a field test. Fur-
thermore, instead of studying the paving compaction, previous
studies always focus on the final compaction of asphalt mix. These
approaches cannot acquire the information about changing in
arrangement or aggregates interlocking inside the material before
the mixture has been well compacted. Therefore, in this study, the
real condition of pavement pre-compaction was accomplished in
the test track. The investigation was carried out on the test track
of the MOBA Company in Germany. During the paving process,
the paver was driven at a speed of around 5 m/min, and the tamper
was operated at 30 Hz. First, the bulk materials were loaded into
the paver machine. Secondly, sensors were installed on the paver
screed, to measure the traction during the paving compaction.
The following stage was to study the paving behaviour via several
working parameters of the paver, namely paving speed, paving
thickness, and paving angle. In the end, paving condition variations
in different working operations were compared based on the
derived data from the sensors. The field test for paver traction
monitoring and paving process investigation can be seen in Fig. 5.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Investigation of angular velocity of aggregate during
Pre-Compaction
During compaction, the asphalt mixture is compacted, with its
aggregates continuously rotating and rearranging until they
Fig. 6. Spatial directions of axis in simulation and the prototype of the paver model.
6
Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
achieve a stable framework. Therefore, the compaction status of
a material can be influenced by the rotation behaviour of its aggre-
gates. It has been proven from the previous study of Wang et.al
that during Superpave Gyratory Compaction (SGC), the rotational
kinetic properties of aggregates can directly indicate the com-
paction status of a material, and this influence is valid until the
aggregate rotations reach a plateau [48]. Considering that the pro-
cess of material pre-compaction is also a procedure in which par-
ticles can be pressed and compacted by their relative rotation,
the compaction degree can therefore be evaluated by the relative
rotational behaviour of the particles. Specifically, during the paving
simulation, the rotational properties of the aggregate were
monitored along each direction. The reference coordinate in the
simulation and monitoring area can be found in Fig. 6. The model
of the paver machine is simplified in the DEM simulation as a com-
bination of auger and paver screed, which is the core part during
pre-compaction. The contact models are applied with the afore-
mentioned parameters in chapter 3.
In the simulation of material pre-compaction, the rotational
movements of the aggregates during compaction were monitored,
and the average angular velocities of the particles were captured in
the rotational axis in three directions. As illustrated in Fig. 7, the
average angular velocity of the aggregates fluctuates rapidly during
the paving process, the fluctuation of velocity is mainly caused by
the high frequency of vibration from the paver screed. However,
the figure shows that the rotational velocities of particles in each
of the three directions are significantly different.
It should be mentioned that the angular speed around
both  and y directions do not change obviously, fluctuating from
0.3 to 0.3 rad/s. The angular speed following the z axis, however,
changes significantly when the tamper of the paver starts to have
contact with the particles in the selected area, fluctuating at a level
of 0.2 rad/s, in the 7th second this value reaches a peak value at
0.45 rad/s. It was found that the particles moved obviously around
the z-axis, which is parallel to the driving direction, but rarely
move in the other two directions. In other words, during the pro-
cess of paving, the materials are pre-compacted with a rotation
movement of particles around z-axis, the other two directions do
not have obvious rotation. This phenomenon does not correspond
to the compacting conditions in lab test such as the SGC test [48].
This is because asphalt compaction in the test track is different
from that in lab-SGC test. In the field test the compaction is
finished with the compacting machine (paver machine or roller
compactor) moving forward, while during SGC test, the compactor
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
Fig. 7. Average angular velocity of an aggregate (a) along each space axis; (b) along three space axes during paving process.
works with periodical rotational compacting, and there is no speci-
fic moving direction of the compactor during compaction process.
Therefore, the average angular velocity obtained from simulation
can used for evaluating the pre-compaction in this study.
4.2. Influence of paving thickness on pre-compaction
The model of pre-compaction uses the real physical parameters
of the paver machine and the bulk material in order to simulate the
real physical conditions of the paving process. Besides, the move-
ment of the paver, moving forward with a vertical vibration, was
defined by the velocity per second in this model. Several models
with different working parameters were simulated for parameter
7
Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
adjustment and validation. The total amount of the particles with
their parameters was kept the same in all of the models, so that
the mechanical behaviour and the kinetic properties could be com-
pared according to the same conditions. For instance, the contact
force between the geometry and material was analyzed first in
the research. It can be seen from Fig. 8 that the contact force
between the paver and material changes significantly depending
on the paving thickness. The relationship between the contact
force and the paving thickness yield the distribution function of
ex according to the mathematical statistics analysis. The vertical
contact force, which is also the direction of gravity, dramatically
increased as the paving thickness decreased. When the supporting
force from the material to the paver equalled the gravity of the
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
Fig. 8. Relationship between contact force and paving thickness.
paving machine, then the paving thickness with this compressive
force distribution corresponded with the real condition of the
paver moving on the road surface, at which the horizontal force
of the device was close to the real traction offered by the engine.
The gravity of the paver has been calculated to 91000 N. From this
diagram, when the generating volume of particles keeps constant
in all models, the real mass of the paver is close to the result from
the model with a paving thickness of 4 cm (see Fig. 8). This proves
the reliability of this DEM model. The model with a paving thick-
ness of 4 cm was used for the numerical analysis in the following
sections. The horizontal force of the device was derived from this
image, which is 12253 N.
4.3. Influence of paving angle on pre-compaction
The angle of the contacting plane between the material and the
paver screed is determined by the special orientation of the paving
machine, namely the paving angle of the screed. The force distribu-
tion can be changed due to the angle of the contacting plane, also
because the gravity is directionally constant. Therefore, the normal
stress, shear stress, and friction between the materials and the
screed plate are influenced by this angle.
In DEM simulations, the reference coordinate system and mon-
itoring area can be found in Fig. 6. From Fig. 7 it can be seen that
8
Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
the average angular velocities of aggregate have different levels
of fluctuation due to the vibration of the paver screed during pav-
ing compaction, and it is difficult to obtain the overall rotation of
particles, namely the effective rotation of aggregates. Considering
that paving compaction is also a procedure where the aggregates
can be pressed and compacted by their relative rotation, the com-
paction degree can be evaluated by the relative rotational beha-
viour of particles. Specifically, the evaluation dominantly
considers the rotational properties of aggregate along the driving
(z-axis) direction. Fig. 9 illustrates the trend of rotation movement
from particles during paving. As can be seen from these two
images, the particle movement follows a similar trend with same
paving speed and thickness, although with different paving angles.
The value of y axis in this figure indicates the average value of the
aggregates’ angular velocity (rad per second), while the value
of  axis is the simulating time (in second).
In order to derive the increase in the particles’ effective rotation,
this model used a definite integral calculation method. In this
method, the area enclosed by the curve of angular velocity and
x-axis is calculated and regarded as the average effective rotation
of particles. In other words, the area calculated for each model is
the average effective rotation of aggregates during paving. From
the calculated results we know that the area of the 1° paving model
is 0.51, and that of the 2° paving model is 0.80. It is assumed that
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
Fig. 9. The trend of average angular velocity around z-axis: (a) paving angle 1°; (b) paving angle 2°.
the power of the paver screed exerted on the bulk materials
remains constant, a larger paving angle indicates more horizontal
components (for the paver moving forward) of paving power are
used for rotating the particles, and there will be fewer components
used for vertical compacting. This result means that a smaller pav-
ing angle is better for vertically vibrating compaction. As for the
degree of pre-compaction from the different paving models, the
increase in density will be discussed in detail in the following
section.
Fig. 10 compares the results of paving models with different
paving angles. The vertical axis value indicates the final absolute
9
Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
angle of particle rotation, namely particles’ effective rotation angle,
which was obtained through definite integral calculation. As can be
seen from the graph, the effective rotational angle of the aggregate
performs differently in different rotational directions. However, it
should be emphasized that the fluctuation of the rotational angle
around both x- and y- directions is not obvious, fluctuating at
around 0 rad, regardless of the paving angle. On the other hand,
the rolling angle following the z-axis changes dramatically when
the tamper of the paver starts to contact the particles, fluctuating
at a level of more than 0.5 rad. From the results, it can be found
that the particles moved obviously around the z-axis, which is
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al. Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164

Fig. 10. Effective rotational angle of particles due to different paving angles.

parallel to the driving direction, but seldom move in the other two
directions. In other words, during paving compaction, the materi-
als are pre-compacted with a rotation movement of particles
around the z-axis, the other two directions do not have obvious
rotation. From the simulation results it also can be noted that
when the paving angle is 1° or 2°, the increase in compaction den-
sity is greater than at an angle of 0°.
4.4. Influence of paving speed on pre-compaction
at too high of a speed or too low a frequency of vibration will result
in a lack of pre-compaction. When the paving speed is set at a
value faster than 5 m/min, the pre-compaction cannot be guaran-
teed regardless of vibrating frequency. Similarly, when the vibrat-
ing frequency is set at a level slower than 600 rotations/min, the
pre-compaction cannot meet the required standard.
From the results in section 4.2 it is shown that when the paving
angle is 1° or 2°, the increase in compaction density is greater than
when the paving angle is 0°. The Compaction Increase Ratio (CIR)

During compaction, the forward velocity of the paver is of great

importance for the paving condition of the road surface. The con-
trolling of the paving speed can be regarded as a balance point
between compaction quality and efficiency. As a rule, the planning
of asphalt paving is determined by the capacity of the asphalt mix-
ing plant and the time required for delivery vehicles to reach the
construction site. The paving speed should be selected in such a
way that interruption can be avoided as much as possible, taking
into account the performance of the roller used as well. With
regard to the longitudinal smoothness of asphalt courses, practical
experience has shown that it is better to reduce the paving speed
and pave without stopping.
On the other hand, the paving speed also dramatically affects
the quality of pre-compaction. A list of paving speed recommended
by paver manufacturers as can be seen in Table 2 [49].
The results from field tests illustrate the variation in degree of
pre-compaction depending on the velocity of the paver with differ-
ent vibrating frequency, as can be seen in Fig. 11. Obviously, paving

Table 2
Recommendation of paving speed for pavement layers.

Pavement layer Range of paving speed (m/min)

Asphalt base course 2–8
Asphalt binder course 4–10
Asphalt surface course 3.5–8 Fig. 11. Degree of pre-compaction depending on the speed of the paver with
different vibrating frequency (r/min = rotations per minute).

10
C. Wang, M. Moharekpour, Q. Liu et al.
Table 3
Compaction increase in different models.
Paving speed (m/min) Paving thickness (cm) Paving angle (°) CIRvi
4 4 1 4.80
4 4 2 2.22
5 4 1 2.33
5 4 2 1.02
6 4 1 1.10
6 4 2 1.07
was defined here to compare and describe the quality of pre-
compaction:
ðqv i  qv 0 Þ
CIRv i ¼  100% ð5Þ
qv 0
Here, CIRv i is the compaction increase ratio when the paving

speed is v m/min (v = 4, 5, 6), and the paving angle is i (i = 1, 2),
qv i is the density of material after pre-compaction when the paving

speed is v m/min and the paving angle is i , qv 0 is the density of
material after pre-compaction when the paving speed is v m/min

and the paving angle is 0 .
Table 3 compares the increase of pre-compaction from paving
models with different working parameters, and the paving thick-
ness is set as 4 cm as previously discussed. With the rise of paving
speed, the increase of pre-compaction meets a significant drop.
These results of the simulation are consistent with the results
obtained from the field test (see Fig. 11). In addition, it is worth
mentioning that regardless of the paving speed, the pre-
compaction increases of the model with a paving angle at 1° is lar-
ger than those with 2°.
5. Conclusion
To simulate the pre-compaction of pavement via paver
machine, a DEM model was developed in this research, to study
the mechanical behaviour of bulk material during paving com-
paction. Selecting the parameters of materials was determined
via the laboratory tests, while the setting of the paver’s working
operations was set based on the real conditions at the field con-
struction site. The main conclusions of this study can be summa-
rized as follows:
The rotational kinetic properties of aggregates can directly indi-
cate the compaction status of aggregates. Besides, pavement filed
compaction is different from that in lab-SGC test. In the field test
the compaction is finished with the compacting machine (paver
machine or roller compactor) moving forward, while during SGC
test, the compactor works with periodical rotational compacting,
and there is no specific direction of movement of the compactor
during the compaction process.
During paving compaction, a larger paving angle means more
horizontal components of paving power are used for rotating the
particles, and there will be fewer components which are used for
vertical compacting. This result shows that within a proper range
of variation, a smaller paving angle has a better effect on vertical
vibrating compaction.
The paving speed should be selected in such a way that inter-
ruption can be avoided as much as possible, taking into account
the performance of the roller used as well. Specifically, paving to
too high speed or too low frequency of vibration will result in a
lack of pre-compaction. With the rise of paving speed, the increase
of pre-compaction meets a significant drop. When the paving
speed is set at a value faster than 5 m/min, the pre-compaction
cannot be guaranteed regardless of vibrating frequency. Similarly,
when the vibrating frequency is set at a level slower than 600 rota-
11
Construction and Building Materials 289 (2021) 123164
tions/min, the pre-compaction cannot meet the required standard
as well. In addition, it is worth mentioning that regardless of the
paving speed, the pre-compaction increases of the model with a
paving angle at 1° is larger than ones with 2°.
The paving model generated in this study can be used for eval-
uating the paving compaction of asphalt pavement. The pre-
compaction index CIR was proposed here to compare and describe
the quality of pre-compaction. More tests of material are planned
to be conducted for deriving the input parameters in the DEM.
Besides, the morphological characteristics of aggregates and grada-
tion of asphalt mixtures will be considered in our future study,
which can allow the model to more realistically simulate field
pavement paving compaction.
On the other hand, several factors having significant influences
on the performance of the pavement compaction were not consid-
ered in this study yet, e.g., the morphological properties of aggre-
gates, the distribution of aggregate gradation and the
temperature distribution of materials. These factors are very
important for pavement compaction experiments as well as its
numerical simulation. Therefore, they will be considered in our
further study on the pavement compaction.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Chonghui Wang: Investigation, Writing - original draft. Milad
Moharekpour: Data curation, Writing - original draft. Quan Liu:
Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Zeyu Zhang: Methodol-
ogy. Pengfei Liu: Data curation. Markus Oeser: Project administra-
tion, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
6. Acknowledgments
This research is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Highway Research Institute
(BASt) under research project No. FE 88.0140/2015. This study is
also based on a part of the research project carried out at the
request of the German Research Foundation (DFG) under research
project No. OE 514/1-2 (FOR2089). The first author of this manu-
script also appreciates the support from the China Scholarship
Council (Grant No. 201706560034). The authors are solely respon-
sible for the content.
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