Influence of roughness and cross slope induced dynamic loads on flexible pavement responses

ABSTRACT

Among all the factors influencing flexible pavement design, vehicular loads are of prime importance. Thus the present study evaluates the dynamic wheel loads on the pavement by considering the prime factors related to the vehicle and the pavement. Relationships are developed for three different trucks considering the combined effects of vehicle speed, gross vehicle weight, and pavement roughness on dynamic loads. The study further quantified the effect of pavement cross slope on vehicular loading in the outer wheel path. Furthermore, the critical responses for a flexible pavement section are determined using finite element analysis by considering the viscoelastic properties of asphalt layers and moving loads. The findings of this study reveal that, even for a smooth pavement with roughness ranging between 1 and 2 m/km, the dynamic load can be 7–13% higher than the static weight. The dynamic loads further increase rapidly as the pavement deteriorates. Compared to the conventional static analysis, incorporating dynamic loads into pavement analysis revealed an increase in the critical responses by 6–50%. Further, due to the interplay between vehicle speed, dynamic load coefficient, effective load, dynamic modulus, and loading frequency, a non-linear decrease in critical responses is observed with increased vehicle speed.

KEYWORDS:

• Dynamic loads
• pavement roughness
• cross slope
• fatigue cracking
• rutting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection and analysis were performed by Dr. Kakara Srikanth. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dr. Kakara Srikanth and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.