In this study a novel approach for 3D modeling of cylindrical sample of hot mix asphalt (HMA) is presented. To this end, the cylindrical sample was divided into several slices and using a developed algorithm the processed images were extended to 3D volumetric objects to reconstruct the 3D microstructure of HMA. To evaluate the efficiency of the presented 3D model for prediction of mechanical behavior, HMA was regarded as a two-phase mixture; mastic phase and aggregate phase. The asphalt binder, filler, air voids and fine aggregates were considered as mastic with viscoelastic behavior and the aggregate was considered as an elastic material. Two models (Burger and generalized Kelvin) were studied for determining viscoelastic behavior of mastic. Finally, to verify the model using Finite Element Method (FEM) the behavior of the 3D model was simulated under different uniaxial compressive loads. A good agreement was observed between the simulated results and corresponding experimental data which indicates the efficiency of the proposed model to simulate three-dimensional asphalt.
