Numerical Investigation of the Mechanical Response of Solar Pavement Based on Cement Concrete Under Vehicle and Temperature Loading

• Published in: Arabian journal for science and engineering (2011) 2023-04, Vol.48 (4), p.5305-5319
• Main Authors: Yuan, Huaqiang, Guan, Yanhua, Zhang, Xuan, Sun, Renjuan, Ge, Zhi, Li, Wu, Feng, Yujie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Concrete pavements; Concrete slabs; Energy harvesting; Engineering; Finite element method; Humanities and Social Sciences; Investigations; Mathematical models; Mechanical analysis; Modulus of elasticity; multidisciplinary; Research Article-Civil Engineering; Science; Thermal expansion; Thickness; Three dimensional models
• ISSN: 2193-567X; 1319-8025; 2191-4281
• DOI: 10.1007/s13369-022-07390-4

Solar pavements are a new type of pavement structure that harvest energy from the sun and have been widely investigated in recent years. A critical step toward the acceptance and development of solar pavement structures is investigating their mechanical response, which is conducted in this study. Here, a typical pavement structure with functional photovoltaic, cement concrete, base, subbase, and subgrade layers was selected. This is one of the most acceptable forms of the solar pavement structure. A numerical simulation of the solar pavement was conducted by establishing a 3D model using the finite element software ABAQUS. The effects of the vehicle critical load position, elastic modulus, geometric size, linear expansion coefficient of the photovoltaic panel (PVP), and cement concrete slab (CCS) thickness on the mechanical response of the solar pavement under vehicle and temperature loadings were investigated. The results indicated that the critical load position of the solar pavement in the middle of the long side of the concrete slab was the same as that of the traditional concrete pavement. The PVP parameters influenced the mechanical response in the following order: elastic modulus, linear expansion coefficient, and geometric size. By increasing the CCS thickness from 0.20 to 0.28 m, the CCS load stress decreased by 15%; however, the curling stress increased significantly from 0.85 to 1.97 MPa. An increase in the PVP linear expansion coefficient caused the curling stress of the solar pavement to first decrease and then increase. A linear expansion coefficient of 1 × 10 –5 resulted in minimum curling stresses of 0.42 and 1.70 MPa for PVP and CCS, respectively.