DEM simulation of the thermo-geomechanical effect of recycled concrete aggregate assemblies in geothermal pavement bases

Abstract

This paper studies the discrete element modeling (DEM) of the thermal-geomechanical effect of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) assemblies when harnessing renewable geothermal energy from pavement bases. This research study aims to simulate the behavior of RCA under repeated load triaxial test (RLT) at temperatures varying from 20 °C to 80 °C, to simulate temperature effects when harnessing geothermal energy from pavements. The DEM approach was used to simulate unsaturated soil considering interparticle water meniscus and the variation in its force due to the temperature fluctuation. In this research study, RCA samples with different particle size distributions were simulated under RLT test ..