Dynamic response of flexible pavements at vehicle–road interaction

In the present paper a robust and general computational framework that captures the dynamic response of flexible pavements to a moving vehicle is presented. A finite element method is relied upon in order to establish the response function for a linear viscoelastic pavement structure with dynamic effects taken into account. In order to characterise the dynamic loads induced on the pavement by moving traffic, a quarter car model combined with measured road profiles is used. Once both the traffic loads and pavement response functions are known, the stresses and strains induced in the pavement can be obtained in the frequency–wavenumber domain through the convolution procedure. The computational procedure developed is applied in the present study to evaluate the effect of the pavement surface roughness on the pavement structure response to truck traffic loading. Stress field parameters governing fracture initiation in asphalt layers are reported for two measured road roughness profiles. It is shown that the dynamic effects at vehicle–road interaction may have a profound influence on the stresses induced in flexible pavements; therefore, these effects need to be taken into account for the accurate estimation of the road resistance to cracking.