Combined Effect of Moving Wheel Loading and Three-Dimensional Contact Stresses on Perpetual Pavement Responses

Abstract

Tire–pavement interaction was analyzed with measured three-dimensional (3-D) tire contact stresses at various load levels (35, 44, and 53 kN) and constant tire pressure (720 kPa). The combined effect of moving wheel load and 3-D contact stresses on flexible pavement response was evaluated with a developed 3-D finite element (FE) model, which incorporated the measured 3-D tire contact stresses, hot-mix asphalt (HMA) viscoelasticity, and continuous moving load by using implicit dynamic analysis. In FE modeling, a perpetual pavement design with 254-mm HMA placed on 305-mm lime-modified subgrade was exposed to dual tire loading. The critical pavement responses under two loading conditions (uniform contact stresses and measured 3-D contact stresses) at various load levels were calculated and compared. The 3-D tire contact stresses induced greater pavement stresses and strains at the pavement near surface (shear strains and octahedral shear stresses) and at deeper depths (transverse tensile strains and compressive strains) comparable to the uniform contact stresses; these results suggest that using uniform contact stresses could underestimate pavement damage, especially near-surface cracking potential and shear flow in perpetual pavement. The transverse tangential stresses induce the outward shear flow from the tire center and shear strain concentration at the pavement near surface. Increasing the wheel load mostly increases contact stresses at the tire edge and the corresponding shear strains and octahedral shear stresses. The difference between pavement responses caused by uniform contact stresses and 3-D contact stresses decreases when wheel load increases.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Yap

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Truck Tire Types on Road Contact Pressures. Vehicle Pavement Interaction—Where the Truck Meets the Road. SP765. Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., Warrendale, Pa., 1988.

Tielking

J. T.

and Roberts

F. L.

. Tire Contact Pressure and Its Effect on Pavement Strain. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Vol. 113, 1987, pp. 56–71.

De Beer

Fisher

and Jooste

F. J.

. Evaluation of Non-uniform Tire Contact Stresses on Thin Asphalt Pavements. Proc., 9th International Conference on Asphalt Pavements (ICAP 2002), Copenhagen, Denmark, August 17–22, 2002.

Drakos

Roque

and Birgisson

. Effects of Measured Tire Contact Stresses on Near Surface Rutting. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1764, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2001, pp. 59–69.

Romanoschi

S. A.

and Metcalf

J. B.

. Characterization of Asphalt Concrete Layer Interfaces. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1778, TRB, National Research Council, Washington D.C., 2001, pp. 132–139.

Al-Qadi

I. L.

and Yoo

P. J.

. Surface Tangential Contact Stresses Effect on Flexible Pavement Response. Journal of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, Vol. 76, 2007, pp. 558–582.

Huang

Y. H.

Pavement Analysis and Design, 1st ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1993.

Al-Qadi

I. L.

Elseifi

M. A.

and Yoo

P. J.

. Characterization of Pavement Damage Due to Different Tire Configurations. Journal of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, Vol. 84, 2005, pp. 921–962.

Carpenter

S. H.

Extended Life Hot Mix Asphalt Pavement (ELHMAP) Test Sections at ATREL. Research Report FHWA-ICT-08-017. Illinois Center for Transportation, Rantoul, 2008.

10.

Buttlar

W. G.

and Roque

. Development and Evaluation of the Strategic Highway Research Program Measurement and Analysis System for Indirect Tensile Testing at Low Temperatures. In Transportation Research Record 1454, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1994, pp. 163–171.

11.

Yoo

P. J.

and Al-Qadi

I. L.

. The Truth and Myth of Fatigue Cracking Potential in Hot-Mix Asphalt: Numerical Analysis and Validation. Journal of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, Vol. 77, 2008, pp. 549–590.

12.

Al-Qadi

I. L.

Wang

Yoo

P. J.

and Dessouky

S. H.

. Dynamic Analysis and In-Situ Validation of Perpetual Pavement Response to Vehicular Loading. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2087, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2008, pp. 29–39.

13.

Zafir

Siddharthan

and Sebaaly

P. E.

. Dynamic Pavement-Strain Histories from Moving Traffic Load. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Vol. 120, No. 5 1993, pp. 821–843.

14.

Yoo

P. J.

and Al-Qadi

I. L.

. Effect of Transient Dynamic Loading on Flexible Pavements. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1990, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2007, pp. 129–140.

15.

Dynamic Loading of Pavements. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, 1992.

16.

Baladi

G. Y.

Schorsch

and Svasdisant

. Determining the Causes of Top-Down Cracking in Bituminous Pavements. Final report for Michigan Department of Transportation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 2002.

17.

Myers

L. A.

Roque

and Ruth

B. E.

. Mechanisms of Surface-Initiated Longitudinal Wheel Path Cracks in High-Type Bituminous Pavements. Journal of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists, Vol. 67, 1998, pp. 401–432.

18.

Wang

L. B.

Myers

L. A.

Mohammad

L. N.

and Fu

Y. R.

. Micro-mechanics Study on Top-Down Cracking. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1853, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 121–133.

19.

Doweling

N. E.

Mechanical Behavior of Materials, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1999.