Improved performance evaluation of road pavements by using measured tyre loading

Abstract

This paper presents evaluation of road pavement response under the loading of typical dual and single truck tyre configurations. Locally developed Stress-In-Motion (SIM) technology was used to quantify three-dimensional (3D) shapes of the tyre road pavement contact stresses. The measured stresses were used as input for multi-layer linear elastic analyses in order to demonstrate improved evaluation of pavement performance, especially on the surface of the road structure. Strain Energies of the Distortion (SEDs) at various sections within the road pavement structure were determined. It is shown that the concept of SED as a response parameter that quantifies “potential for failure” of a road pavement structure seems to resonate well with the applied tyre stresses and their different shapes. It was also found that single wide-base tyres introduce more than double the potential for failure compared with the dual tyre configuration on the same pavement. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that under-inflated, heavily-loaded tyres may cause more damage on the surface of the road compares to correctly inflated tyres. The combination of SIM technology and SED from numerical modelling may be used to identify areas of high potential for failure on the road surface