Abstract
This study evaluated the effect of the pavement design parameters on the behaviour of orthotropic steel bridge deck pavements under traffic loading using a three-dimensional finite element model. Four types of paving materials were considered in this analysis: polymer concrete, epoxy asphalt concrete, polymer-modified stone mastic asphalt concrete and mastic asphalt concrete. The maximum transverse tensile strain was developed at the bottom of the pavement under a tyre of dual tyres or on top of the pavement between two tyres. From the sensitivity analysis, better interface bonding between the deck plate and pavement led to a significant enhancement of bottom-up fatigue cracking resistance, especially for 40-mm-thick pavements. As pavement temperature increased from − 20 to 60°C, critical tensile strain increased significantly, and corresponding locations moved from the bottom to the top of the deck pavement.